Ambode calls for investment in real sector

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has urged local and international investors in the Nigerian economy to focus on the real sector for their investments in order to create job opportunities and grow the GDP.

Ambode, represented by Rotimi Ogunleye, his commissioner for commerce and industry, spoke at a dinner organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, held in Lagos recently.

According to the governor, the crash in prices of oil upon which Nigeria had depended over the decades, calls for an urgent action towards the diversification of the economy, and throws up the need for strategic partnership between the private sector and the government.

Ambode commended the US for believing in Nigeria as the highest foreign investor in the nation’s economy with major interest in the mining sector, but noted however that more investment from the US was needed to create employment opportunities.

To him, apart from providing job opportunities for Nigerians, the US also provides opportunity for exports of some products through African Growth Opportunity Act.

He charged the president of the Chamber and other members to build on the gains of the bilateral relationship, saying the board members were taking the mantle of leadership at a very challenging time.

“There is need to break new grounds for mutually beneficial trade as we are committed to diversification of our economy with more attention being paid to non-oil sector. This has become inevitable as a result of the unfolding development in the global oil market and the fact that oil has been the major export from Nigeria to the USA,” he said.

The governor also urged the Chamber to partner the state government in its effort to achieve economic stability and sustainable growth through investments in the real sector, assuring of the commitment of his administration to provide a conducive environment for business.