Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has praised the pliancy of Nigerians, saying we will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger.
According to a statement by Osinbajo’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke at the 2020 edition of The Platform, themed ‘Nigeria’s battle against COVID-19’ on Saturday.
The annual event of the Covenant Christian Centre that features discussions around the states of the country and its development was held by videoconference.
Osinbajo said, “We will get through this much stronger economically and much stronger as a people because of our resilience. There are a lot of challenges, but they offer significant opportunities for us to turn things around.”
“I am very confident that Nigerians, with our resilience, our strength and our innovation, will go through this in great shape.”
The Vice-President laid out some of the Federal Government’s efforts to address the economic fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, “We have to prioritise the use of local resources in all public works. In road construction, for instance, it is cheaper to build concrete roads using limestone than spending resources on the importation of bitumen.
On mitigating the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic such as inflation, the Vice-President explained that government would focus on improving productivity and improving food stock across the country.
Osinbajo added that boosting agricultural production for export purposes and supporting the mining sector would bolster the country’s forex earnings and reserves.
