President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday met with select Nigerian billionaires and his allies in the business and political class and thereafter established an Economic Advisory Committee as part of measures to tackle the ongoing hardship in the country.
The committee comprises of the federal government and State representatives and members of the billionaires club, representing the private sector.
Those who attended the meeting include President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote; Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu; Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir (Director-General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN). among other Nigerian business moguls.
Governor of Anambra, Charles Soludo, and Dapo Abiodun, his Ogun counterpart, were also part of the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, Tinubu said the goal is to provide “additional efforts” in stabilising the economy and ensuring the “best economic future” for Nigerians.
Tinubu stressed the need to look at what is being done rightly or wrongly to revive the economy, saying that the Nigerian people remain the centerpiece of government’s actions.
He said government is exploring additional ideas to help the masses in its bid to provide assurance that the economy is on its way back to recovery.
President Tinubu told the meeting: “Let’s look at what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong to bring life back to the economy. Like I said, many times, the people of this country are only the people who we have to please. And we are very much concerned from students to mothers and fathers, farmers, the traders and realising that everyone of us will have to fetch water from the same well.
“We’re looking for additional efforts that might help the downtrodden Nigerians and we will provide that hope and reassurance that economic recovery is on its way.
“We are not saying that we have all the answers. But we will not be blamed for not trying. We assure Nigerians that we will do our best to get our Marshall plan in place and fashion out the best economic future for this country.”
On his part, Dangote said, “We had a very good meeting and what we discussed is generally about the economy, food security and security of the nation. We discussed everything in detail. And there is the economic presidential advisory committee which has been set up and I think this will look at all the issues and address them.
“I can’t give you all the details right now, but we are hopeful and we’re a great nation. We have what it takes to turn around the economy and we’re going to do that.”
Elumelu affirmed: “I left this meeting with a lot of enthusiasm, excitement and optimism about the future of our country. I believe that implementing the decisions we arrived at today will have propel our economy and help alleviate the poverty in the land, help create employment and help put food on table.”
In his remark, MAN DG noted that the private sector is looking forward to the implementation of most of the decisions from the meeting.
He added: “Manufacturers are looking forward to an environment that is conducive to business. And so the issues surrounding foreign exchange, insecurity and general operating environment were discussed and we received the assurances of Mr. President that very soon, we are going to start to see some major changes.
“And I think the advisory committee that has been formed, the private sector will play a very significant role, and Nigerians, going forward should be hopeful that we are having solutions to the challenges that we have.”