From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe

The Federal Government (FG) has announced its pledge and commitment to work with the Gombe state government to improve productivity and economic diversification.

The FG assured that it is ready to render the needed support to ensure that businesses and the business environment of the state succeed in the face of numerous global challenges of doing business.

This was disclosed by Vice President (VP) Prof. Yemi Osibanjo while speaking as a special guest of honor at the just concluded Gombe State Investment Summit (GOINVEST) on Friday in Gombe.

He commended the state governor and government for approaching the development of the state with a mindset of a sovereign state as opposed to the thinking of being subnational. “It is fascinating that Governor Yahaya has approached the development of the state by thinking like a sovereign as opposed to thinking like a subnational, this explains why he took the trouble to draw up a 10 years development plan and takes the issues of enabling business environment seriously and this is how it should be,” the VP said.

While commending the state government for its various reforms, the VP said, “We are glad that Gombe state is at the center of business enabling reforms that we have which has informed the state’s standing as the number one in subnational ease of doing business survey report ranking”.

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He added stating that, “Gombe state is poised for greater things in the next few years and from what we see currently being implemented by the state government it is clear that what we will see in another couple of years will be much better from what we have seen in past years”.

“Gombe can be easily run as a sovereign state, Gombe’s GDP today is almost three times the GDP of Namibia and is almost at the same level as the GDP of Liberia, so when you compare the state to actual sovereign states you can see very clearly that the best way to plan the growth of the state is to plan it as the growth of a country,” he said.

He assured that the FG remains committed to the policies and reforms efforts that are geared towards economic diversification and improves productivity, “we are confident of the successful results of the programs currently being implemented by the Gombe state government and those that are underway in the areas of health, industrialization, and agriculture.

He also commended the business community both in the private sector and the international investors for standing up to the challenges of doing business. He said, “The future of our country rests in the hands of business owners, the successes that we have seen in Gombe state are on the account of the effective collaboration of the private sector, the state government, and the federal government.

“Our federation benefits our people when states and federal authority alongside private actors think and work together,” Osibanjo added.