By Nifemi Adefemi
President Bola Tinubu has said that his administration will give priority to the provision of stable electricity supply stressing that no sustainable development could be achieved without steady electricity.
“My administration recognises that no meaningful economic transformation can happen without steady electricity supply, the President emphasised in his New Year message this morning in Lagos.
Tinubu said adequate electricity supply would ensure that the economic aspirations and material well-being of the poor, most vulnerable and working people, are not neglected.
“Just this past December during COP28 in Dubai, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and I agreed and committed to a new deal to speed up the delivery of the Siemens Energy power project that will ultimately deliver reliable supply of electricity to our homes and businesses under the Presidential Power Initiative which began in 2018.
“Other power installation projects to strengthen the reliability of our transmission lines and optimise the integrity of our National grid are on-going across the country,” President Tinubu added.
The president said that 2024 would also witness a boost in food supply and production of petroleum product with the various initiatives put in place in the last seven months of the administration.
He also promised that his administration will also implement a new national living wage for our industrious workers this New Year. According to him, ”It is not only good economics to do this; it is also a morally and politically correct thing to do.
“Having laid the groundwork of our economic recovery plans within the last seven months of 2023, we are now poised to accelerate the pace of our service delivery across sectors,’’ the President said.
In addition, President Tinubu said his administration will also pay due attention to agriculture.
”To ensure constant food supply, security and affordability, we will step up our plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of farmlands across the country to grow maize, rice, wheat, millet and other staple crops.
“We launched the dry season farming with 120,000 hectares of land in Jigawa State last November under our National Wheat Development Programme.
The president pledged to fight every obstacle that would impede business competitiveness, adding that he would not hesitate to remove any clog on the path to making Nigeria a destination of choice for local and foreign investments.
“In this new year, we will race against time to ensure all the fiscal and tax policies reforms we need to put in place are codified and simplified to ensure the business environment does not destroy value.
“On every foreign trip I have embarked on, my message to investors and other business people has been the same -Nigeria is ready and open for business.
“In my 2024 Budget presentation to the National Assembly, I listed my administration’s eight priority areas to include national defence and internal security, job creation, macro-economic stability, investment environment optimization, human capital development, poverty reduction and social security.
“Because we take our development agenda very seriously, our 2024 budget reflects the premium we placed on achieving our governance objectives,’’ he concluded .