March 28, 2017

GOODWILL MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF INTERIOR LT. GEN. ABDULRAHMAN BELLO DANBAZAU (RTD.)

I am very delighted to send this goodwill message to participants of this important event, the annual Bola Ahmed Tinubu Colloquium. I chaired part of the proceedings last year but today, I’m sending the honourable Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Bello Danbazau (Rtd.) to represent me and to air some of my views on the chosen topic of this year’s colloquium.

First, let me pay a special tribute to the person in whose honour this colloquium is being held. Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of the universe, the Jagaban of Borgu, is the outstanding Yoruba politician of his generation. Tinubu is a great mobiliser and a practical man of action. He is equally effective in conceiving, planning and executing governmental development policies. A simple example will suffice for the purpose of my goodwill message to this gathering.....The transformation of Lagos. Tinubu and his associates notably Fashola, Osinbajo and now Ambode, are the architects of the economic and social regeneration of Lagos.

Lagos, once the dirtiest city in Nigeria is now among the cleanest if not the cleanest. The land reclamation of parts of Ikoyi and Victoria Island, has transformed Lagos into an acceptable international city with more to come. Tinubu’s outstanding qualities are a keen intellect, prodigious hard work, attention to detail and uncanning knack of picking the right person for the right job position.

Secondly, let me now turn to the subject and theme of this year’s colloquium and I quote “Make it in Nigeria. Use what we make and make what we use”. It is an apt choice. At the best of times, this is a desirable policy; for our country now, it is more than desirable, it is a necessity. Let me remind distinguished participants of where we were two years ago when this administration came into office. 35% of our large foreign exchange earnings went into importing finished petroleum products. At the same time the country’s four refineries were run down and allowed to stay closed. If the previous government heeded the call to make it in Nigeria, use what we make and make what we use, that situation would never have arisen.

Furthermore, we spent 20% of our Forex earnings on imported food. Food includes, 12-15 year old rice unfit for human consumption elsewhere but happily brought into Nigeria. We imported croissants, fruit juices, cornflakes, assortment of items classified as foods to deplete our foreign exchange and deprive industries which require Forex for machine tools, spare parts and vital raw materials. In addition, we imported toothpicks, paper tissues and the like in complete disregard to national interest in the shape of our economic wellbeing.

The present administration is very serious in facilitating industries to make what we can locally and import only what is strategic to our development plan. We intend to encourage and facilitate small and medium enterprises to make things in Nigeria. The government is looking forward to receiving the proposals emanating from your discussions with a view to adopting them as part of our overall national economic policy.

I wish you successful deliberations.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER AIR MARSHALL SADIQUE ABUBAKAR CHIEF OF AIR STAFF, THE NIGERIAN AIRFORCE

I consider it a privilege to have been invited to deliver a keynote address as a special guest at the 9th Bola Tinubu Colloquium. I therefore express my appreciation to the organisers of this event for this singular honour. I am particularly thrilled at the theme of this year’s event which is “Make it in Nigeria. Use what we make and make what we use”. I am thrilled because it affords me the opportunity to showcase how the Nigerian Airforce has been innovative locally to maintain its platform’s weapons systems and associated equipments. However, before going into the details of our innovations, kindly spare me a few moments to first highlight the significance of air power over the course of history.

Right from 1903 when the Wright brothers conducted the first successful flight, air power has played a decisive role in combat. The first instance of the use of air power was during the war between Italy and the Othman empire in 1911 when a young Italian pilot was ordered to throw grenades from his aircraft to strike enemy encampments. Another subsequent use of air power in battle were the successful German bombing of London during World War 1, the German Bellicose operations of World War 2, the Luftwaffe demonstrated the doctrine of control of air power and support to surface forces with so much efficiency that it stunned the opponents into submission. These must have spurred Winston Churchill to observe and I quote “not to have an adequate air power in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundation of national freedom and independence”. That statement distinguished ladies and gentlemen holds true until today.

More recently in the Falklands war between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982, the decisive battle that determined the fate of the islands was fought in the air. Again, air power proves to be the most decisive factor that brought the gulf war of 1991 to a speedy conclusion. The gulf war lasted for 43days out of which the ground offensive took only 5days as a result of a successful air campaign mounted by the coalition forces against the Iraqi forces. Furthermore, air power was fundamental to the enforcement of no fly zone established by the United Nation’s Security Council over Bosnia Herzegovina in 1992 during the Yugoslav war.

Back home air power has also played a decisive role in bringing conflicts to speedy resolution right from the Nigerian civil war when the Nigerian Airforce was launched into battle barely 2years after its establishment. Since then the Nigerian Airforce has successfully used air power to project Nigeria’s interest during the Nigerian – Chadian conflict in 1983 and the ECOMOG operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone. So impressed was the one time ECOMOG field commander, Gen. Victor Malu with the efficacy of air power that he stated and I quote “ In any modern operation, you can never underrate the use of air power. You either have it or you don’t go into operations”. We are witnesses to our recent swift deployment to Gambia which brought the political issue in the country to a quick resolution. The swiftness of that deployment was only made possible by the availability of serviceable air assets.

Coming back home, Nigeria faces several internal security challenges ranging from militancy in the south-south, pipe line vandalism in south-west, cattle rustling in the north-west and boko haram terrorism in the north-east. The Nigerian Airforce has successfully deployed its air assets in conjunction with ground troops to end or reduce some of these challenges. For instance air

operations conducted in Arepo by Nigerian Airforce platforms, successfully ended pipe line vandalism in that area. In the north-east also, the Nigerian Airforce has succeeded in using air power to decimate the boko haram terrorists that they no longer pose any significant threat to our daily lives. A clip was shown with the Nigerian Airforce F7 aircraft attacking boko haram terrorists.

For the Nigerian Airforce platforms to remain operational, the timely delivery of spare parts at reasonable costs must be assured. However, the Nigerian Airforce is ordinarily compelled to rely mostly on foreign original equipment manufacturers for the supply of spare parts and usually at exorbitant rates. Besides as a service, we are all aware of the focus of the federal government in promoting local content, home grown technology and innovation as a principal means of preserving the nation’s foreign exchange earnings. Accordingly, the Nigerian Airforce currently places much emphasis on research and development as a way of building indigenous technological capacity. It is against this backdrop that I would be speaking on Nigerian Airforce research and development efforts towards self reliance, achievements and future deliverables. Know that the effectiveness of the Nigerian Airforce in the long term largely depends on the extent of the growth of its home based technology.

I want to highlight key dividends of the Nigerian Airforce research and development efforts. To achieve this aim, I shall look at the foundation of indigenous research and development efforts in the Nigerian Airforce, some products of research and development efforts and finally conclude on future deliverables.

Let us now start at looking at the foundation. In the Nigerian Airforce, a key requirement of the fulfilment of our statutory mission in ensuring the integrity of Nigeria’s air space is the availability of sufficient aircrafts for air operations. Nigerian Airforce therefore has different aircrafts for different operations. Pictures of some of these aircrafts and their roles were shown on the screen. It is noteworthy that spares and components that are essential to the serviceability of the aircraft are not usually manufactured in Nigeria. It was just the norm to source for all the required parts only from various overseas original equipment manufacturers.

Asides from the habitually exorbitant costs of importing these items, delivery was often delayed thereby resulting in prolonged downtime for our aircrafts. It became obvious that the Nigerian Airforce had to innovate if it had to effectively and efficiently fulfil its role. In realisation of the foregoing, the foundation for innovation efforts in the service was laid when the Nigerian Airforce research and development policy was formulated. Accordingly, all I had to do on assumption of office was to strengthen the research and development capacity of the service for large scale research activities. In pursuit of this goal, we established the Airforce Research and Development Center in October 2015 for basic and applied aero space research and development. The center was to undertake other Nigerian Airforce strategic research and development commitments.

Thereafter, all the officers who had undergone various post graduate programmes in aero space vehicle design at different universities as well as those talented officers in the area of aero space research and development were redeployed to this center in Kaduna to form the nucleus of Nigerian Airforce research activities and they were given the necessary mandate. The Nigerian Airforce also introduced inter-command research and development competition. Another step taken by the Nigerian Airforce was to sign a memorandum of understanding with 22 selected Nigerian universities and research institutions. This was in consonance with one of the key drivers of my vision which is

employing strategic partnerships with ministries, departments and agencies for enhanced research and development. The other key driver that is important to this presentation is reinforcing a culture of self reliance and prudent management of resources.

Sequel to the successful signing of the memorandum of understanding, various research and development cells comprising resource persons from selected tertiary institutions and Nigerian Airforce personnel were then formed. The cells were assigned the task of addressing different aircraft and related maintenance challenges based on identified competencies. Our experience so far has shown that there are highly talented resource persons in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The sustenance of these successful partnerships with these institutions has had and would continue to have positive impact on aircraft serviceability in the Nigerian Airforce. This will in turn enhance our ability to project air power towards contributing not only to the resolution to Nigeria’s current security challenges, but security challenges within the West African sub region. Apparently what Nigeria needs, is to successfully harness her rich human resources, appropriately motivate them and mandate them to come up with desired results.

Now a brief look at what we have been able to achieve, the products starting with the hydraulic accumulator for helicopter gunship. The hydraulic accumulator diaphragm is a very important component of the MI35 helicopter gunship which is one of the main platforms being employed in the north east. Asides from being very expensive, the diaphragm requires frequent replacement to assure safe conduct of flight operations. Often times, the MI helicopters become grounded due to faulty hydraulic accumulator diaphragms. Efforts made to procure the diaphragm from the manufacturers of the helicopter, revealed that it was scarce to source and very expensive. The Nigerian Airforce eventually had to procure six diaphragms only at the cost of about $106,000. That situation led to the commencement of in-house research on the production of the diaphragm. At this rate, each diaphragm costs about $17,666.67 each. This translates to about NGN5.5million per diaphragm and each aircraft carries two which means that we need about NGN10.1million to procure just two diaphragms.

In the course of research, the Nigerian Airforce collaborated with some mechanical and robot technology outfits in the country resulting in the production of the first prototype. Ever since the production, the product has undergone various modifications and I am glad to announce that we have now produced the version of the one from the original equipment manufacturer at the cost of about NGN25,000. The Nigerian Airforce no longer imports the diaphragm and our MI35 helicopters are never grounded again on account of faulty diaphragms. Let me hasten to add that the successful production of the diaphragms which have been patented in 2016 has the potential of impacting on the nation’s economy. For instance the local suppliers of the needed raw materials as well as the local manufacturing company are profiting from this venture.

Next is resolving the incompatibility issue on the Augusta109 helicopter. The Augusta109 helicopter is a light utility helicopter that is frequently employed in intelligence, surveillance and recognisance role in the north east and other theatres of operation. The helicopter’s camera and its multi function display, which displays various aircraft parameters, were integrated by the original equipment manufacturer. However, with time a conflict arises between these two systems with attendant adverse effect on our operations. The foreign firm which was contacted to rectify the snag submitted a bill of NGN158 million an amount the Nigerian Airforce considered as being prohibitive.

Consequently, the Nigerian Airforce looking inwards set up a research and development cell and tasked them with resolving this conflict. The committee was able to successfully separate the camera from the multi function display while providing additional monitor for the camera. Both of them now work independently without any operational hitches and the Airforce paid NGN5 million.

The next is a bit interesting because I’m going to talk about electrolytes in the battery of a fighter aircraft. The F7NI aircraft is a fighter aircraft deployed in the north east. Among the challenges faced in the operation of the aircraft, was the maintenance of the airborne alkaline battery supplied by the original equipment manufacturer. The battery had a service life of one year, a shelf life of two years making its durability very poor. The battery also requires regular charging and topping of its electrolyte which had to be procured from overseas. The impression given by the manufacturers was that the electrolyte had special additives that can never be tampered with nor sourced locally. Meanwhile, the corrosive nature of the electrolyte made it extremely difficult to import as shippers were always reluctant to ship it thereby leading to increased aircraft downtime. To resolve the problem of the electrolyte which rendered most of the batteries unusable, the Nigerian Airforce commissioned a research and development team in collaboration with Benue State University, Makurdi. The research team was able to successfully produce a replacement of the electrolyte for the F7NI aircraft batteries. It is gladdening to note that we do not import electrolyte for the F7 aircraft batteries.

Now to production of anti-skid system for the alpha jet. For some time, the Nigerian Airforce has been experiencing challenges with the anti-skid system of the alpha jet which is another platform that is actively engaged in the counter insurgency operations. The anti-skid system is connected with the braking system of the aircraft and will usually result in the grounding of the aircraft if faulty. The major challenge before now were rectifying anti-skid system related snags on the aircraft is the lack of test bench. To test the anti-skid system that has been repaired. Ideally, test benches are used to confirm the functionality of a system that has been repaired prior to installation on the aircraft. However, the Nigerian Airforce was being compelled to test the anti-skid system thereby sometimes inadvertently damaging other components on the aircraft. Towards resolving the anti-skid challenge on the alpha jet aircraft, the NAF collaborated with Abubakar Tafewa Balewa University in Bauchi, Ahmadu Bello University and University of Maiduguri. Results passing from these institutes alongside the Nigerian Airforce counterparts were able to design and produce a test bench for the alpha jet aircraft anti-skid system. Today our challenges with the anti-skid system of the aircraft have become part of our history.

Now to the alpha jet brakes; there was a death of the alpha jet brake assemblies owing to the closure of production lines abroad. I then directed the aircraft engineering branch to collaborate with indigenous brake manufacturing companies to find a lasting solution to this problem. Eventually, the Nigerian Airforce partnered with the Innoson group of companies which readily agreed to use the company’s equipment to overhaul the alpha jet aircraft brake assemblies. A total of eight brake assemblies were successfully overhauled through this process. The Nigerian Airforce has since signed a memorandum of understanding with the company, which has invested in the production of brake pads and rivets needed to overhaul the alpha jet aircraft brakes. The company is now able to mass produce the needed alpha jet aircraft brakes. With this we are sure of getting the required brakes at an affordable price, the right quality and in a timely manner having involved a indigenous company.

Then to manufacturing of our man aerial vehicle; the modern training military aviation is the employment of our man aerial vehicles in various missions. Not to be left behind, the Nigerian Airforce through its OLE initiative (OLE here means Optimising Local Engineering), was able to manufacture our man aerial vehicle. The prototype of our man aerial vehicle named Gulma, was designed and developed for intelligence, surveillance and recognisance operation solely by Nigerian Airforce officers. The man aerial vehicle when fully operational can remain airborne for 8-10 hours flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet and a cruising speed of about 102km/hr.

Now finally to weaponisation of combat aircraft; through ingenious efforts, the Nigerian Airforce has bolstered its research and development initiatives in the area of armament technology. These initiatives have led to major breakthroughs that have impacted positively on the Nigerian Airforce counter insurgency operations in the north east. Notable among the Airforce towards self reliance in the field of armament are the weaponisation of 3 alpha jet aircrafts whose weapon systems were reconfigured locally to carry not only western block weapons but also be able to carry eastern bloc rocket launchers.

Similarly, we have weaponised three EC135 civil helicopters. Another weaponisation programme that was successful is the reconfiguration of the L39ZA basic trainer to play an offensive role. The outcome of this effort was tested in Makurdi.

Finally, to future deliverables; there are other ongoing research and development projects that cannot be discussed due to time constraints. These projects are going on in collaboration with various different organisations and institutions and they include, the production of a man aerial vehicle through the use of indigenous technology for Nigerian Airforce and other government agencies, production of prototype motored aircraft for Nigeria, reverse engineering on most armament and associated equipment as well as other projects. We are mindful of the fact that the success of these ongoing future research and development will depend a lot on the commitment of our personnel and various partners. Nevertheless, the significance of political support cannot be over emphasised. We therefore solicit the continuation of the support which the federal government has been so generous in giving.

In conclusion, the various things achieved by the Nigerian Airforce through indigenous research efforts in collaboration with various Nigerian organisations and tertiary institutions has no doubt impacted positively on aircraft availability for diverse air operations particularly on the ongoing counter insurgency operations. Besides, the local innovations are assisting the service to overcome total dependence on foreign vendors thereby reducing cost of acquisition and maintenance. Herein lies the benefits of innovating locally in partnership with the relevant stakeholders. I therefore seize this opportunity to appreciate the numerous partners of the Nigerian Airforce particularly our universities and polytechnics in its quest for technological achievements and local innovation. I would like to commend our sense of patriotism, commitment and enthusiasm. At the end of the madness in the north east, the names of our partners would be written in gold for their contribution in making Nigeria a safe place. We would not rest as we forge ahead with other ongoing and future research and development projects towards the development of the Nigerian Airforce and the nation at large.

PRESENTATION BY SEUN ABOLAJI CO-FOUNDER, WILSON’S JUICE COMPANY

Wilson’s lemonade is made from fresh squeezed real lemons and not from concentrates. These lemons are locally grown and all the raw materials used for the production of the drink are sourced in Nigeria. Our tag line is “Always natural never from concentrate”.

What is Wilson’s Lemonade about? It’s about creating better which is our mission and how do we do that? By creating better individuals. Every member of staff is young and vibrant; all the way from sales, marketing, production and delivery. We create better individuals, better lives and from creating better lives, we create better employees and from creating better employees, we would create a better company and if we create a better company, we can create a better Nigeria.

With NGN2,000 the company was started. We bought a bag of oranges and plastic juicer and just started squeezing the juice at Covenant University; just a small kiosk and nobody knew we would be where we are today. My brother (Seyi) and I started the company as an opportunity to do something. We had another business before Wilson’s that was producing palm kernel oil but it crashed because we didn’t understand the principles of business. To do business whether you are young or old, you need to understand the principles of business because you could sell your products on credit, pay for supplies with cash and at the end of the day your business falls.

So why the name Wilson’s? My last name is Abolaji...in business; you have to think about branding. If you were to pick up a bottle of lemonade that’s called Abolaji Lemonade, you would not be confident in the product. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with our name; however, we were thinking outside Nigeria and how the brand would appeal to people in Africa. Currently, our product sells in Cameroun. Wilson’s lemonade has two varieties; the pure lemonade made from freshly squeezed lemons and the pink lemonade which is made from hibiscus tea better known as “zobo”. There’s no strawberry, raspberry or their likes readily available in Nigeria so we asked ourselves “what is natural and what is red?” and that’s how the pink lemonade was conceived.

Where are we going? We want to be the natural beverage leader in Africa. I know it’s a big dream but we believe we will achieve it. Our products tell a story...on each bottle there’s a story, our sweet story. It talks about lemons falling out of a truck; we picked it up and did something positive with it. A lot of people complain about Nigeria and the state of it; however, we can compare Nigeria to lemons. Electricity can be lemons, water can be a lemon but the question is what are you going to do with it as an individual? We turned our own lemons into lemonade and try to tell stories that cut across every tribe in Nigeria on each lemonade bottle.

Getting the right audience; our initial label wasn’t appealing to customers here in Nigeria and didn’t sell the product well. So, we changed to something that was more acceptable to the Nigerian market and we were able to penetrate it. We have our products at Shoprite nationwide, Ebeanor, Covenant University, Barcelos, Game and Spar nationwide. We were on Dana Air but would like to get on other Nigerian and maybe international airlines.

Finally, our lemon tree grew from the squeezed lemon seeds and peels thrown at the back of the factory. We pile up the by-products instead of throwing them away like we used to in the past. Our

company started in 2010 selling in cups then in 2013; we got NAFDAC approval and have been pushing our way in the market since then.

In conclusion, you can start your business modestly in Nigeria and grow your business to be big.

PRESENTATION BY BLONDIE OKPUZOR CEO, BATHKANDY

I am the CEO and founder of BathKandy, a few years ago I realise that I became allergic to almost everything, I couldn't eat the food that I've grown up to eat, where a normal person would hop in the shower and turn on the faucet, I couldn't do that because I realised that I was allergic to water as well. So I decided to research natural skin remedies to figure out how to help myself and I started to get acquainted with shea butter, cocoa butter and just natural ingredient that we could find in Nigeria. I started to mix these up in my kitchen and I realised that they did help. I got really bored and started to experiment even with things in the kitchen and I would include things like chocolate, agbalumo, garri and you know they looked really nice, they felt great and they did help me. So I figured that there's something here.

At BathKandy, we create beauty products infusing natural ingredients and unconventional raw materials like chocolate, rice, beans... whatever you think; we infuse them into our products and make them look and smell like desserts. I was determined that if I couldn't eat these things anymore I could at least make my products look and smell like them.

In December 2014, a friend of mine told me to make a gift box for her mom for Christmas and I did and I put the picture up on my BlackBerry and then I got 50 orders; I was unprepared, I didn't know what I was doing but I was determined. I was excited so I went to the store, I bought out all the jars of olives that they had, I bought packaging and I got really crafty and I did this and it was great. So I realised this is a business that I can really try and do this, now I had a problem, I figured out a solution but how was I going to make people buy this?

People love things that look good, people love things that smell good but more importantly, people like things that actually work. So I bullied friends and family into buying my products and giving them out as gifts, the more people saw them, the more people try them and they liked them. I started to put pictures up on Instagram and orders kept coming in. At this point you have you know all these things, so I said you know what? You need to make this a proper business. I got a store, registered my business, and I started to market the product but the thing with being an entrepreneur, is you have to convince people you're the only person that has your vision, I had to convince people that I was serious about this, that I could actually make money and make a difference from doing this and I did.

After this, we started a business, I had to hire people, had to stop myself from taking money out of the company’s wallet. However, when you hire people, it's a whole different ballgame, you have to manage people, you have to manage your expectations and this was a struggle for me. I remember the days where I was sitting at my office and just cry because I was frustrated by everything; the whole concept of being an entrepreneur. It never ever crossed my mind to quit because I'm an entrepreneur; I had everything to prove so I decided to keep pushing.

Now I have all these things setup in place, what next? I focused on the customers because the customers are people who will market your products, they are the people who will buy it and then go tell other people and tell more people. That was how we got our customers involved; we focused on creating excellent customer service, making sure that every experience with the company was a memorable one. Customers started to tell us what they like, what they didn't like, they told us what they wanted us to produce, so we started to incorporate these things and expand our product line.

We also gave the customer the opportunity to name the products as well and this worked. Three weeks ago, we opened our second store in Abuja because customers asked for it and we realised

that there was a huge market there. This was exactly two years after we opened our first shop in Lagos.

We currently ship across Nigeria as well; we sell in the US and the UK as well. Again the customers told us what they wanted and we gave it to them. As an entrepreneur, you have to be nimble, you have to be able to move and give the customers what they want.

In conclusion, if I had to advice upcoming entrepreneurs, I just tell them to dream big. There was no road map for me, this concept had never been done in Nigeria, so I didn’t have anything to compare to but I just know that I liked what I did and I also knew that there was a market for it and there were other people like me who were very sensitive to skin care products. I dreamt big, when my dream started to scare me, I just took a leap and I continued.

PRESENTATION BY NDIDI NWUNELI CO-FOUNDER, AACE FOODS

AACE Foods was founded because of our conviction that we were importing 90% of the processed foods we consumed in Nigeria, 40-60% of our fruits and vegetables went to waste and yet 60% of our population was engaged in agriculture. Basically, AACE Foods was established to address this problem and take advantage of the agricultural produce in our country, maximise the potential of our farmers and address the high rate of malnutrition in our country.

Since we started, AACE Foods has sourced from ten thousand farmers in Nigeria; we produce twelve spices and seasonings which many of you might have seen in ten cities across the country. We also produce three complimentary food products; soya maize which addresses moderate malnutrition, Soso nourish and our beans flour. In addition, we work with IDP camps and non-profits to provide these products across the region ensuring that more of our children have more access to nutritious food. Our factory is located at Sango Otta and we have really enjoyed the support of the Ogun State government that has committed itself to working with local producers to process locally.

We have been able to export some of our products to the Netherlands and the US. We have products in Shoprite, Spar and have worked with FMCGs to actually supplement what they used to import like the chilli pepper, ginger, garlic and other produce which encouraged them to source locally.

I would like to end with just a few suggestions for the Nigerian government and the great team of individuals sitting here. When we think about the opportunities in the made in Nigeria sector, they are enormous and cannot be quantified. However, there are some major barriers that need to be addressed. The first is supply chain, every single producer in Nigeria sources locally but struggles to find the input from our farmers. Imagine if every state governor present would devote a portion of its state’s website to show the location of every single produce we need like soya, maize, beans, garlic, ginger etc. This would help us remove the middle man in the process and facilitate production. At the moment, we source most of our ginger from Kaduna State and had to find the clusters where they are locally grown in Kaduna ourselves.

The second intervention we pray you think about is the importance of supporting and protecting Nigerian consumers. This requires that we stop the adulteration of foods by ensuring we strengthen SON and NAFDAC so that the food that come into Nigeria are good for human consumption and protect those who invest in locally sourced food in Nigeria.

Finally, to create incentives for made in Nigeria products. What does this mean? It means that instead of importing relief products from the World Food Programme, you source food from the Nigerian companies that are producing nutritious food to feed our people. This is really critical because we can ensure that the malnutrition we are facing in the north is addressed by our people. I will end with my favourite quote which says; “If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go with others”. I believe that the VP’s team and the leadership present is committed to going far. If we are going to go far and support proudly Nigerian products, it means we need to look inwards as policy makers and legislators to work with the businesses to create an enabling environment for businesses like AACE Foods and others to thrive.

PRESENTATION BY ABRAHAM ISAAC TEAM LEAD, SOCART TEAM, FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MINNA

I represent the SOCART team from the Department of mechanical engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna. SOCART team has been a team that deems it fit to see Nigeria moves to the next level in terms of energy.

We in the SOCAR team have come up with a plan to design a powered car that will drive on energy. Last year, the first solar aircraft was driven around the whole world and without any form of energy other than solar power. The materials for our project were locally sourced and fabricated in our departmental workshop. This project was displayed at different exhibitions where we won different awards, with the society of engineering body in attendance.

The panel that drives the car is designed with mono crystalline lattice to harness the proper energy needed to drive the wheels. The energy from the sun is trapped by photovoltaic cells in the panel for the functional operation of the car. The photovoltaic cells are stored in a battery bank, which powers the motor, which drives the wheels.

The design for the solar car has been completed but funding the production is the challenge now. If this project is funded by the great Nigerians seated in this hall, Nigeria will be one of the solar cars producing nations in the world. We hope to drive this car to this event next year if we get required funding.

PRESENTATION BY CHIEF INNOCENT CHUKWUMA FOUNDER/GROUP CHAIRMAN, IVM INNOSON GROUP

I started business as a trader in my village before I ventured into manufacturing. I sold motorcycle and vehicle spare parts and tyres. From my trading experiences in motorcycle and vehicle spare parts, I developed the first Nigerian made motorcycles and later vehicles.

When I started trading, I started small and bought my goods from Leventis, Yamaco and Bollous in Lagos. Today, people come to buy from me the same way I bought from Leventis and co in the past. My honesty and transparency endeared customers to me and this helped my business grow very fast. My desire to produce locally made motorcycles was fostered by the high cost of a unit of motorcycle. At that time, a motorcycle was selling for NGN150,000 and I just could not comprehend why it was that expensive.

After some analysis and investigation, I realised that the high cost was due to the number of motorcycles being imported relative to the cost of importation. Then, there were four companies importing motorcycles and they were Leventis for Honda products, Bollous for Suzuki, Yamaco for Yamaha and CFAO for Kawasaki. These companies imported about 36-40 units of motorcycle per 40feet container which were packed in crates. I was able to set up a local team that dismantled the motorcycles and successfully packed 260 units in a 40feet container. I was able to achieve this because of my extensive knowledge in the motorcycle spare parts business. This achievement, caused a drop in the price to NGN80, 000 and then later to NGN60,000. In the course of my motorcycle production, the birth of the largest plastic factory in West Africa was born. Most components of the motorcycle are fabricated from plastic hence the need to establish the factory.

Due to the high import of second hand vehicles into the country, I again decided to try out manufacturing vehicles made in Nigeria since most vehicles production plants in Nigeria were basically assembling plants. Today, we manufacture vehicles from scratch and every component of each vehicle is locally sourced and fabricated. I can confidently say that my company has the capacity to supply vehicle assemblers to any auto company that wants to do assembling business in Nigeria. I believe that with the support of Nigerians, our country would one day be the home to car manufacturing in Africa.

Also in my quest to promote the manufacturing industry, I have assisted young entrepreneurs in setting up manufacturing factories; however, their greatest challenge is power. I have on several occasions advised them that in business, there is no ideal situation hence the need to find innovative ways to tackle bottlenecks encountered.

Finally, I would like to call on the younger generation to find ways to improve processes that would ease the life of the Nigerian people.

PRESENTATION BY DAVID ADEROUNMU MANAGING PARTNER, TEMPO HOUSING NIGERIA

Tempo Housing Nigeria is a cargo texture construction company and simply put, it means we build using shipping containers as our building blocks which negates the use of cement making our building process quicker and much cheaper. We have been in operation for five years now and are fortunate enough to complete a number of key projects using our building methodology. Our projects include mobile toilet, ATMs, eateries and service office buildings here in Lagos. One of our buildings is in Lekki here in Lagos.

Let me talk a little bit about myself and how I ventured into this business. I studied Aerospace Engineering in the university of Manchester and after graduation, I worked in an investment bank in the UK before I came back home in 2009 and also worked within the banking industry. After a few months, I decided to take a plunge into entrepreneurship with my business partner. I believe entrepreneurship is a very strong quality of most Nigerians as it gives you the opportunity to take your destiny into your own hands. You are able to plan your time and impact on the industry you are serving as an entrepreneur.

It’s not a secret that there is a big housing problem in Nigeria currently. We have not been able to meet the demand for affordable or basic housing in the country. The estimated housing deficit in the country is about 70million homes which is a big problem and with a big problem, provides an opportunity to find a solution. We considered container housing because we were opportune to witness a container housing construction in London. The key thing we took away from the experience was the speed of the container and the quality of the outcome of the container unit which we felt could be replicated in Nigeria and in turn help solve part of the housing deficit issue.

Another reason for the container housing is its eco friendly and as the world is going green, we felt we should be part of it. In the shipping industry, shipping companies are supposed to renew their inventory every 25years and disposing of containers pose a big problem for them. The ability to transform these containers to homes for Nigerian families seemed like a good idea and something that could work here. The one thousand housing children’s development in Holland which was built in six months was another project that inspired us and our dream to make container houses.

As much as it seems like i left a lucrative career in the banking industry to go into construction, I have no regrets about it because working and running a company in Nigeria has given me the opportunity to be able to realise my dreams as well as make an impact in my society.

Finally, my advice to anyone looking at starting a business in Nigeria is to remain focused, be persistent in your goal knowing that Nigeria is one of the few places where you can really achieve your dream and soar compared to anywhere else in the world.

PRESENTATION BY USMAN ABDULHAMEED CEO, VELCROZ DESIGNS

I prefer to be called the Creative Director than the CEO because we are in the creative industry the industry that has played a great role in getting us where we are today. I am a graduate of Economics with over two years in the manufacturing industry and a strong partnership that has taken us to where we are today through hard work.

While I am in the field sourcing for leather, my colleagues are at the factory ensuring that the leather is properly used to get designs that please our customers. In Velcroz Designs which is a shoe manufacturing company, we strive to give customers the best in order to get them to patronise made in Nigeria shoes. Getting the quality right is very important to us that is why we ensure we source the best quality leather as this is the key driver of our products besides the designs. We perform quality tests like durability for the variety of leather sourced across Nigeria as also carry out market surveys to ensure we use the best materials to produce our shoes.

Craftsmanship comes in when we need to produce a design for our shoes. It’s an uphill task to manufacture something that is unique and different from what is obtainable in the market. Market analysis must be carried out to enable you compete in the Nigerian market and it’s also good to compare your prices, product quality and availability of your product with that of your competition in order to penetrate the market. We ensure our shoes are available in Nigeria by partnering with various outfits that displays and sells our shoes as well as create brand visibility and events.

At Velcroz designs, we cannot fail to acknowledge the role social media has played in marketing our shoes and ensuring we reach our target audience. Over 50% of our shoes are displayed via social media platforms. In other to achieve success, you must set your goals, love yourself and explore your abilities, manage yourself and time effectively and have a purpose in life.

PRESENTATION BY NASIR YAMMAMA FOUNDER, VERDANT

It’s 1996 and a bright sky in Emmama village in Katsina State and an equally dazzling cotton field rows across the grounds. A little six year old boy walks across the fields holding tightly to his father’s hand. On the other side lorries are lined up and labourers are loading trucks with cotton, groundnut, millet and maize. Now fast forward, twenty years later, I returned to my father’s farm in Emmama and I am an entrepreneur who builds technologies for farmers across the agricultural value chain and other stakeholders. An interesting thing is that right before that, I was in London and I had won a competition using the same idea that got me the mentorship of billionaire Sir Richard Branson that was 2014. In 2015, I was selected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as one of the fifty global entrepreneurs to change the world. In 2016, my company Verdant, now established in Nigeria, has won a global competition in agric food and tour in Italy. This year 2017, I have been listed among the Queen’s young leaders to be awarded by Her Majesty in London.

It’s an interesting thing that my state governor, Governor Masari is here and perhaps, he would tag along with to Buckingham palace. Moving forward, what do we do? We have a big problem here in Nigeria and across Africa. More than 90% of our farmers who produce equally 90% of our food are small holders but they are isolated and not in tune with the market, agricultural banks and institutions that make their work better, faster and more efficient.

What we do is we use technology to enable their environment to do business and to become better farmers. We provide access to information, access to finance, to agricultural credit and every other thing that makes farming more viable. Essentially, we are partnered with other organisations that help us get there; from Samsung to other international organisations including the European Union. Now we are working with state government and perhaps the federal government at some point to bring Verdant to more farmers.

Largely what we want to do is to make farmers more efficient, make them become business people and make agriculture a viable thing with technology. We have a team of just young people in Abuja and we are working in Adamawa, Benue, Plateau, in Sokoto and hopefully in Kaduna and all other states in Nigeria.

PRESENTATION BY KENNETH GYANG DIRECTOR, ‘SONS OF THE CALIPHATE’

In 1996, an international pharmaceutical company came to the city of Kano during a meningitis outbreak; they ran an illegal clinical test on 100 children. 11 children died, some suffered blindness, deafness and brain damage. An American film called The Constant Gardener was made, loosely based on the events that happened in Kano in 1996 and like other stories about the pains of Africans, it uses a white guide to tell our African stories.

Because films are a reflection of where we are actually coming from, in 2011, I came up with my friends and said we have to be the one to tell our own stories. We decided to make a film called Blood and Henna a political love story based on the same event because as film makers, we cannot allow other people to tell our own stories. The film was very successful at the end of the day. It got 6 nominations at the African movies academy awards and it opened the eyes of people as to why northerners have a problem when it comes to allowing their children to be vaccinated for polio. I think for us to understand our environment, we always need to understand the stories that precede our behaviours.

To make a second film, Confusion Na Wa, we had to go to Europe to source for funding, it is an irony that to tell a Nigerian story, you have to go source funding from somewhere else. I think we have to do something about the way we tell our stories. Former South African president, Thambo Mbeki once said, we cannot allow other people to tell our stories when we are talking about African renaissance. The Nigerian Government actually setup a grant for filmmakers but because there was no proper advice and structure, some people got the money and did not make the films. This is actually a problem for young film makers who want to express themselves but because there is no structure and funding, they have to go to Europe to source for fund and this i think is the tragedy of the Nigerian art scene.

Finally, we need to setup an endowment fund for the arts for it to thrive and for us to continue to tell our stories.

PRESENTATION BY SHINA AJULO CEO, SPOREDUST

I am not here to talk about our company or myself rather I’m here to talk about my nephew Ibukun. Ibukun loves cartoons so much that everything I have to get or buy for him has to be from his favourite cartoon character. It made me sit down and look at things from that perspective and after a ton of research, I realised that the Disney Company made $2billion every quarter from selling merchandising and that is a huge amount of money. This made me think of the animation business in a whole new light and direction.

For us at our company, we started looking at ways to make animation work here in Nigeria. We sat down, thinking of how we could do this so that it could affect our own culture and livelihood. In the entire world, the global animation industry is worth $248 billion as at 2016 and Nigeria has zero amounts from that pie. So we have been working together with other companies here in Nigeria to see how we could jump in and make some money from that huge amount.

We took a case study from India. India ten years ago had no animation scene. At the moment, they are worth over $2.5 billion. We think we can do that also here in Nigeria because we have the number, youth and everything and we could actually do it cheaper than them.

So our focus is to make sure we do that with collaboration with other studios here in Nigeria and we have already started with a company called Cerebral. Currently, we are doing a multi series production with them using ten different intellectual properties to make this happen. We believe in this country, we believe in animation and believe that can work.

PRESENTATION BY JUDE ABAGA CEO, CHOCOLATE CITY

I represent Chocolate City Music which is an indigenous record label and we are part of the Nigerian music industry that is changing the perception of Nigeria around the world. Nigerian musicians have been doing amazing things; we have been breaking records, nominated for the Grammy awards and changing the culture in Africa. Chocolate City is the first Nigerian label to open offices in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. We are pleased to say that Kenyan musician Victoria Kimani has seen continental success because of the success of Chocolate City.

The thing about it is that with all the creative arts we like to say that with oil we can’t do much to put the oil in the ground but with every other thing; we are hoping that with the support of the VP and other dignitaries present a structure can be put in place to monetise the industry since we are the new oil. Today, our industry is about $180 million in size here in Nigeria which equates to one movie in Hollywood. But the entirety of our impact today across the African continent and the world should be if not challenging what the US is doing, 80% of the US’ total size. We believe that with your help, we should get there.

SPEECH BY BIOLA ALABI CEO, BIOLA ALABI MEDIA

I only have two minutes and so many people have spoken about the importance of the creative Industry but really what I wanted to do today was just tell you some of the things that we can be doing right away to start to make an impact in the industry and with everyone here, the one thing I think is important is sharing this story with you.

One of the things that were really important to me when I started/ move back home 10 years ago was how I can make a positive impact in the industry and that is the creative industry. I was very fortunate to get a job at as the managing director of Mnet Africa and also to lead the transformation of what was then called Africa Magic. Through that transformation we created over 10 television channels and those channels broadcast mostly Nollywood contents 24 hours a day. This changed the way people saw Nigeria not only at home but abroad and in one of my experiences, I had the fortune of taking five Nigerians on the road to 5 countries, one of them being Mama Gee who most of you have seen in most of the movies on Nollywood channels.

While we were in question and answer sessions and some of these sessions included ministers of culture, presidents and vice presidents; one of the things that the creative industry there kept telling me, was how can they tell their own stories the way we've told our stories here in Nigeria and the response for Mama Gee was start where you are, take a camera and start the way we started in Nollywood. At that time, they just kept on saying we don't know how to do what you've done, which was the first time I think our creative and our Nollywood entertainment industry was able to see how enterprising and how innovative we've been with simple cameras. A lot of times people would say they don't watch Nollywood because they don't like the quality but you people sitting here today are responsible for increasing and improving the quality.

One of the other things that I'm going to build on is what MI said; the price Waterhouse Cooper’s entertainment outlook report says the Nigerian media industry is going to $8.1 billion in revenue. $8.1billion is how much the industry will generate by 2019, that means more taxes will be paid, more people will be employed and that means that our industry will start to continue to change. In all the countries I went to and what these people ask me about was our content, all they kept on saying was how rich our culture was. Nobody brought up 419, corruption and juju; it’s all about the power of telling your story and empowering those who tell them.

So what I would like to do as I close today is ask you to please support the industry in three major ways so that we can start today. One of them is creating an enabling environment around capital, the second is to encourage the people that are investing in entertainment projects through tax rebates and tax credits and also let’s get co-production treaties going. South Africa has over 9 co- production treaties with other countries; Algeria has 4 co-production treaties with other countries. These countries have won Oscars and the only way to do that is by engaging other countries, so that we can improve the quality and improve the way we are telling our stories and improve the way the world sees us.

I continue to believe Nigeria is a great country, that is why I moved back home 10years ago and I believe everyone in this hall can make Nigeria greater than it is today.

SPEECH BY ALHAJI ALIKO DANGOTE CEO, DANGOTE GROUP

The topic of the day is indeed important because there are a lot of opportunities in Nigeria. Looking at the estimated population of Nigeria by 2020 of about 210 million people, the question to be asked is; how would we feed and provide for the needs of 210 million people? This is a great task and a lot has to be put in place to ensure the Nigerian people are catered for. However, providing these needs opens the doors of opportunities to entrepreneurs and innovative minds with the support of the government.

When we ventured into entrepreneurship, we realised that our predecessors failed in producing locally made products for the following reasons; first of all they had inadequate power supply - though this is much better now compared to then, secondly inconsistent government policies which are not there to protect the entrepreneurs – we hope that this would be rectified going forward.

In 2014, the production of cement in Nigeria was 1.8 million tonnes meanwhile in 2004, we were at that time the largest importers of cement in Africa and third in the world after the US and Spain. After the Spanish economic crisis, Nigeria was the second largest importer of cement up until 2011 when we became the first globally. I was then called by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss how we could produce cement locally to decrease our dependency on importation. I informed him that it could be achieved however; government policies with respect to backward integration had to be in place. Today, Nigeria has more than 45 million tonnes of cement and last year for the first time, we exported 400,000 tonnes though that is not our full exportation capacity. At the moment, we have the capacity to export 7 million tonnes of cement and a section of the port (berth 21) in Apapa has been acquired solely for this purpose as we plan to start exporting about 7, 000 tonnes to the US.

It’s also worthy to note that 70% of entrepreneurs in sub Saharan Africa are Nigerians while the remaining 30% are spread between Kenya, South Africa and the rest. There are a lot of opportunities here and we have what it takes to turn things around. We are currently targeting a lot of items to ensure that we are self sufficient in these items. The first item is the refinery that would produce 650, 000 barrels per day of petroleum products. Our first product would be Euro5 which is not obtained in Nigeria what we have is Euro3 and this product would cater for not just Nigeria but the entire 15 states of ECOWAS.

We also have the petrochemical plant which is polypropylene/polyethylene with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes and the size is 10 times that of Eleme Petrochemical in Onne, Rivers State. Our target is to produce about 3 million tonnes of fertiliser (Urea and Ammonia) by the end of 2017 or latest by the first quarter of 2018. This plant is located in Lekki here in Lagos; thanks to His Excellency, the governor of Lagos who is our chief promoter. The land is about 2, 800 hectares which is 6 times the size of Victoria Island.

I would like to thank Asiwaju because without his foundation we would have taken this project elsewhere. At the site, we have about 18, 000 workers and hopefully by August we should have

about 40, 000 workers at the site. Our goal is to employ 62, 000 people at the site by 2018 to facilitate full completion of plant by 2019. The ultimate goal of this project is not just to eliminate import but to export products to other countries. The estimated revenue to be generated from exporting these products is about $9.8 to $10 billion and this would certainly transform our economy positively.

In addition, we are looking at increasing the production of sugar in the 3.5 to 4 years to meet the nation’s demand. At the moment, we are consuming 1.7 million tonnes in Nigeria and we plan to produce 1.25 million in Nasarawa, Taraba and Adamawa states out of what is being consumed. We are also trying to negotiate to buy 1.6 million tonnes of paddy rice processing mills that should be ready hopefully at the end of the year.

Finally, there are a lot of opportunities in Nigeria and as a nation; we are on the way to greater heights. The government on the other hand, has done a lot in terms of agriculture and we are working with the government to ensure that the economic recovers as soon as possible. The future is great.

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN NIGERIA BY DR. OKECHUKWU ENELAMAH MINISTER OF TRADE AND INVESTMENT

What I have been asked to talk about is something of particular importance at this time. If you have listened carefully to our young entrepreneurs, small and budding businesses as well as our major industrialists, you would realise that there’s an area the government has a responsibility to the people which is to make doing business in Nigeria easier by creating an environment where doing business gives the desired results. I am happy to say today that this is one area the present government is committed and determined to make a difference; to make sure that the environment is conducive for businesses to thrive like some of the entrepreneurs have demanded today.

This is not just a concept or something we are thinking about but it’s something where we have already made some advancements and a lot has been going on in this regard. I would like to share a very few highlights on what has been going on so far. I would like to acknowledge the state governors present especially the governors of Lagos and Kano states and other governors who are actively supporting this. Like we all know, development actually happen in the states and local governments and without their support, we would not have made progress the way we have.

Every country that is developed or that has achieved its potential, acknowledges the fact that doing business with ease and creating an enabling environment are key for development. Unfortunately, for us here in Nigeria, this has been a major challenge and the present administration is working tirelessly to ensure that this becomes a thing of the past.

At the moment, we have a programme which targets small and medium enterprises; however, already established businesses like Dangote and its likes that have existing structures in place would also benefit from the programme. For us, it is very important that we create an environment where budding entrepreneurs can succeed.

The second point I would like to make is that the president authorised an initiative, chaired by the VP called The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council; to make sure that the government both at the centre, coordinating with the states gets the desired results. There’s also a secretariat with a group of people whose singular responsibility is to drive this initiative.

It’s worthy to note that a 60 day initiative (though it’s 30 days gone now) is in place primarily to focus heavily on areas where immediate results that would benefit our people in terms of ease of doing business in the country. The reason for this initiative is to improve our global ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index. Currently, Nigeria stands at 169 out of about 190 countries and this does not put us in a good light globally. We believe we can change this first by moving up twenty places within the next year and then gradually to the first hundred countries. Our target is moving up to the top fifty by the end of this administration.

I would also like to note that there’s firm commitment coming from all tiers of government and various government agencies towards achieving this. We are also working on areas like ease of getting credit to do business, adequate power, ease of tax payments, construction permits, trading

across borders and the entry and exit of businesses. Positive results on these areas have been noted which is encouraging and shows that more has to be done to achieve our ultimate goal.

There are huge benefits to be obtained from these initiatives especially for our SMEs. We believe that a lot of the cost borne by SMEs would be reduced if an enabling environment is provided. The estimated amount of money we could save for SMEs is about NGN2.6 billion in the short term as well as reduce man hours spent chasing one permit or the other from government facilities. We would like to see Nigeria improve its ranking on the World Bank’s index by the end of the year indicating that we are once again a competitive nation.

Finally, we would like to see all these initiatives and efforts institutionalised even after the end of this administration as continuation is very important in the development of a country. We are also emphasising the importance of collaboration; it is impossible to ease doing business if there’s no link to what’s going on in the various states and agencies that regulate businesses. The good news is that we are working together to put all these in place.

In addition, continuous improvements is key to get better at whatever you do and I believe that as a country, we would get better as we strive to make doing business in Nigeria easier for our people and the young entrepreneurs we have heard from today.

NOTES ON THE ECONOMY, BY MRS. KEMI ADEOSUN MINISTER OF FINANCE

I'd like to start by saying happy birthday to the celebrant and wish you many more years and I will explain why we need you to have many more years as I begin to speak about the economy. I want to thank you especially for making my job easier, because the economic template we are now trying to replicate at federal level, is the one we copied from you. And the impact of that template at federal level is now being replicated at many of the states; indeed, the state where I was proud to serve as commissioner for four and a half years where we saw IGR improve by as much as 800%, we simply copied your template; there was no originality and I am very proud to say so. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery and so we are following that which you have laid down.

The economic situation Nigeria finds itself today, demands that we do so, demands that we have multiple stream of revenue because oil has proved to us that it is a very unreliable source of revenue. Its price is unstable; it causes us to make wrong and lazy economic decisions. It is a shame that we are still one of the major oil producers, that exports crude, and imports refined petroleum. When I speak to people at the grassroots level, I say it is like exporting cassava and importing garri, it makes no sense. We have an unproductive economy and that is what we are trying to reposition.

So for the last 12months, we’ve focused on capital, so far we have released NGN1 trillion in capital between may and the present date and the purpose of that is to drive the infrastructure that is needed to get this economy going and get this economy productive again and create jobs for our people. We’ve recently launched the economic recovery and growth plan, which is a 5 year window, which will reposition this economy and take us to the level of productivity that is needed to create jobs for our young people. It’s exciting to have Alhaji Aliko Dangote speak, but the truth is, for every one billionaire, we need a thousand millionaires. There are 180 million of us, we need to create opportunities for our people and that is what the economic recovery and growth plan will be doing and as we do that, we believe we will reposition this economy.

The theme of today, “Make it in Nigeria”, is a paraphrase of something we’ve been saying at federal level, I believe the president said specifically, ”we will change Nigeria, by using what we make and consuming what we make” it is an imperative, it is not a slogan. It is an imperative for this country to survive, we become productive. So the outlook for Nigeria is extremely positive, we’ve been through probably the most difficult year economically, in the last 40years. We’ve seen oil price as low as $28, we’ve seen oil quantity, decimated but somehow, this economy has shown resilience and now as the matrix begins to favour us, I believe we will grow. We are doing the right things, we are investing right, and we are spending money on the things that will add value to this economy.

One of the areas, sir, which we proudly copy from you, is that of tax mobilization. It is a pity that Nigeria has one of the lowest tax to GDP ratios in the world at 6%, the only country that is lower than us, has no tax system at all, I believe its Oman. We have so many productive, wealthy entrepreneurs who have managed to develop without the habit of paying tax, we need to correct that. I remember being in Lagos when you started the tax drive and how unpopular you were but now on seeing the infrastructure that arises, today I don’t think anybody will blame you for collecting taxes, in fact we thank you for leading the way.

So as I wish you happy birthday, I take this opportunity to reach out to the millionaires, the billionaires and the trillionaires that you will be hearing from me very soon. Thank you.

TOAST BY GOV. AKINWUNMI AMBODE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE

I am humbled and honoured to stand today on behalf of the people of Lagos state and Lagosians in diaspora to salute and congratulate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; on many fronts especially his 65th birthday anniversary that comes up tomorrow. Permit me to describe a fruit...... the coconut as an illustration of my message. The coconut tree is a member of the palm family. The term coconut can refer to the whole coconut palm or the seed or the fruit. The term coconut is derived from the sixteenth century Portuguese and Spanish word “coco” meaning head or skull. From the three indentations on the coconut shell, that resembles facial features. Coconuts are known for their great versatility as evident by many traditional uses ranging from food to cosmetics. For example, Adiagbon; the oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying as well as in soap and cosmetics. The husks and leaves can be used as materials to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating.

The coconut is a good symbol is cultural significance in certain communities. In putting the pieces together; you have a head that is blessed with a divine task to be fruitful and useful to humanity, is greatly versatile, courageous and strategic in outlook. It takes a few years of planting before the coconut tree becomes fruitful thereafter; it bears fruits for a long time. Sixty five years after, he has been fruitful creating more products and by products from his political dynasty than any other living made in Nigeria political product in recent history.

Like the coconut some by products or some fruits would get bad along the way or after being sold in the market. In actual fact the political products may not be the favourite of some other people but the bottom line however is very simple; if Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu were a coconut, I dare say with all simplicity that I would be among the fore front liners that would eat, drink and sleep B.A.T 247.

The test of a successful leader is in the number of leaders he has created. Using this globally accepted parameter, Asiwaju at 65 is without doubt, a winner in this category. There is no doubt that the Asiwaju political dynasty is a made in Nigeria product. The foundation laid and blue prints developed during his tenure as governor of Lagos state which cuts across all sections of the state’s economy has actually simplified the process of governance till date. His blue print has continued to serve as road map in achieving the Lagos of his and our dreams.

This same political product without doubt traverses the Nigerian landscape and that is evident with the emergence of APC at the center in 2015. Asiwaju is a made in Nigeria product. We should make more products out of him.

This year’s central theme is no doubt an apt topic “Make it in Nigeria. Use what we make, make what we use”; I am an unrepentant convert of this ideology. We have demonstrated it; we have professed it through our Lake Rice partnership with Kebbi state. As a government, we would continue to improve our indices in the ease of doing business to ensure that more products are made in Nigeria for the development and growth of our nation.

Asiwaju, I salute you; Senator Oluremi Tinubu, I admire your dexterity and I congratulate you. On behalf of the first lady, my entire family, and all your admirers at home and across the world, we say

a big thank you for your large heartedness, benevolence and visionary leadership that you have unleashed on this nation. You are a statesman par excellence.

My leader, our leader, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR!

RESPONSE BY HIS EXCELLENCY, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU

It is more than gratifying to mark my birthday in this good way. To all of you – many who have travelled great distances, I am greatly honoured that you joined me today. Though the event banners speak my name, this gathering is not about me. It is about that which a people united in purpose must do to improve their beloved country.

We build the nation we seek by forcing ourselves to become that nation, day by day, step by difficult step. We do so by casting aside the prejudices of yesterday to forge a more just society where no Nigerian is held down because of his place of origin, his faith or social station. But where all have the chance to rise, to be what you desire, with dint of honest labour and constructive enterprise, will flourish. This is as God intended us to be. We have no choice but to achieve this destiny.

Before we go further, I give special thanks to the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo; leading a group of rebellious fellow commissioners, we were talking about the tax situation then, we debated intensively from a Monday morning, all through the week and we could not conclude on methodology and agree on patterns and when to start. We had to work all through the weekend, because we had to come out with a tax plan as I gave the deadline for the next week. Some of the samples we have seen today.

Each year, they assemble creative minds to address the issues that stand in the way of our national greatness. As result, the colloquium getting better and better by the year. May almighty God spare you Prof. Osibanjo) for us. I am looking forward to the 10th anniversary of this colloquium.

In this and so much else, the VP has proven himself a true servant of the Nigerian people. While our dear President had to be away, the VP performed excellently as his loyal subordinate.

I applaud President Muhammadu Buhari. He meticulously followed our constitution in temporarily transferring the power to the VP. As such, these two excellent men exemplified teamwork and the true meaning of unity of purpose.

A selfless leader, President Buhari set the stage by giving strategic policy directions. Showing himself equally selfless, our VP, as acting president, worked as the faithful arm of the President, diligently putting in action what President Buhari had directed him to do.

These are two men of different backgrounds, faiths and professional experiences forged themselves into a team managing complex matters of governance in a seamless, smooth manner.

Try as critics might, they could not create any space between the President and his deputy. This is how things are when people are united in vision and purpose. As President Buhari and his VP have been, we all must become.

I have been told that I must utter some brief comments on my birthday. Given that this event has rendered you a captive audience and that my birthday affords me a special privilege today, which can disappear with next hour, but I will utilise it as best as I can. I am not taking undue advantage, I am celebrating.

ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY

More than any hour in our recent history, Nigeria stands at a defining juncture. Our challenges are manifold and profound. But so are our collective abilities and talents. We have seen our young talents, we can’t ignore them, and we have to help them. The honourable minister of industry has given us the hope that Nigeria is not dead yet but is planning, preparing and paying attention to the ease of doing business in this country. The Giant of Africa will never fall.

Today we must ask a most fundamental question: Is our political economy structured for the benefit of man or have we reduced man to be subservient to the impersonal political economy?

The correct answer looms self evident. The political economy should be for the benefit of man. In reality, we do not first try to reshape the economy to realize optimal benefit for the people. Instead, we have been conditioned to demand that the people contort themselves to fit the dictates of what the economy is not.

I reject this harsh path. It violates the tenets of morality and of sustainable economics itself.

We must begin and end our pursuit of economic balance with the precious things this nation produces.

You see, Nigeria is actually a prolific manufacturer. It has produced 170 million of the most adaptive, industrious economic units on earth – our population.

I talk about our people. Our task is not to lament the great numbers but to reform the political economy in a manner that puts them to productive use. The human capital is available here.

Even at the best of times and with the highest of oil prices, widespread poverty, gross inequality and high unemployment of man, machinery and material described our condition.

The decline in oil prices turned our extant economic model into rubble overnight. If we do nothing to reform it, we are doomed. With these 2 leaders, we not enter an economic suicide pact with ourselves. We will dig ourselves out of this trouble because the presentations we have seen here earlier today.

Fortunately, the current government has begun the sometimes painful process of salvage and reform. I offer a few personal insights, hoping they may be of some help in this vital economic reformation.

DIVERSIFICATION/INDUSTRIAL POLICY

No populous modern nation with a significant urban population has attained prosperity without creating an industrial base capable of employing great numbers of the urban population and of manufacturing goods for domestic consumption and export.

We must learn from England which barred the export of textile looms at dawn of the Industrial Revolution, from the high tariffs America imposed for over 150 years after its independence. From China which implemented a most comprehensive protectionist regime to become the world’s most prolific manufacturer.

These three nations represent the past, present and immediate future of economic achievement from which we must learn. We should learn and adopt either from the British, the American or the Chinese policy. We have the population to justify that. We cannot depart from what has been proven effective by all of these countries.

We must do all required to achieve our objectives, if key areas of our economy need energy from coal, we should burn it. We live very far from the western countries and we can live with our pollution as we are very far away from them. We must press forward for our own national industrial policy. Development of industries on our own.

There is no reason why this country should continue to import Newsprint, with all the paper industries we have in country. There is no reason to keep recycling the same methods with our refineries. Let Nigerians own it, with a few foreign partners, we can manage it.

Let us move on with our own industrial policy. We must press forward with a national industrial policy fostering development of strategic industries.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND POWER

Closely complementing the industrial plan, we need a national infrastructure plan. We must create the funding for the national infrastructural plan as our financial institutions cannot fund it. New structures need to be built to enhance the existing ones. A coherently planned and integrated infrastructure including the grid. A national economy cannot grow beyond the capacity of the infrastructure that serves it.

One of the things we are proud of today, is that we broke the monopoly of electricity generation in this country.

Of utmost importance, we must conquer the political and bureaucratic bottlenecks preventing affordable, reliable electrical power; but still we must move on to either coal or any source of energy that will enhance our industrialisation. We must conquer political or any bottleneck preventing affordable and reliable power. No nation can succeed in its industrialisation effort without free flow of electricity.

This impediment places us literally behind other nations. With the vehicular density of this country, we don’t complain of the menace of used tire. We must put incentives in place, including subsidy if necessary to bring back Dunlop, Michelin, and Pirelli to come back start producing tires in this country.

Modern economies are built on credit. However, credit for business investment and consumer spending are closely related and too costly in Nigeria to be of much help.

Consumer credit mechanisms must be more accessible to the average consumer. The current custom still requires a consumer to purchase in one lump sum a house, a car, a refrigerator etc, and this is bait for corruption. This constrains the average consumer and dampens economic activity.

Hardly anyone can save so much that they are able to pay for a house or car all at once. To acquire the lump sum amounts, decent people are tempted to do what they would not even consider if consumer credit was practically available. Until we fight the issues with credit and make it available to all, we cannot conquer corruption.

I want to congratulate the governors of Lagos and Kebbi and other governors who are collaborating to give items like Lakes Rice and other items. There are so many ways we can produce raw materials for petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry, we have the root and soil. We can do it, this industrial policy must be tinkered with, and we shouldn’t be talking about it again.

At last year’s colloquium, we discussed a commodity exchange, Mr. Vice President please turn it to law. I don’t see why Cadbury will produce TomTom in Nigeria and not chocolate, with all the cocoa produce we have in Nigeria and West Africa.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, one additional thought will survive. Here I add a third part to this year’s theme. Not only must we use what we make and make what we use. We must make what the world values.

Thank You

God bless you and God bless Nigeria.