President Bola Tinubu has said that harnessing Nigeria’s vast lithium reserves and encouraging electric vehicles and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) can attract automobile assembly from foreign investors in Nigeria, which will help to spur Nigeria’s economy further by creating jobs.
The President said this in a chat with members of the press on Monday night.
The President, discussing with the media his plans to bring down inflation to 15% as outlined in the 2025 budget which he had earlier presented to the National Assembly, said that he plans to attract Foreign Direct Investment through incentives, and showing the world what Nigeria has to offer.
He then said that Nigeria’s abundance of lithium can spur the country’s automobile industry, going further to create jobs, as he said, “Today, we have solid minerals in abundance. Kaduna has the largest deposit of lithium. Nasarawa, the same thing. If you encourage electric vehicles, plus the compressed natural gas, you will attract automobile assembly in Nigeria instead of all this second hand market that is not creating jobs.”
Elaborating on his plans to bring down inflation in Nigeria to 15%, he said, “Produce more for consumption locally. Give reasonable level of funding and assistance, low interest rates to farmers. Improve the security as you’ve seen in the budget so that they can return to their farms and produce more food. Encourage the procurement and manufacturing of drugs in Nigeria. We have what it takes.”
“All I need to do is to put the incentives in place in order for them to harness what is possible in Nigeria. It is about time we do all of those.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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