NIGERIA’S VICE President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has congratulated UBA Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu, for his excellent work over the years, and his various contributions towards the economic development of Nigeria, Ghana and other countries in West Africa and beyond.
Speaking at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Group Chairman’s Forum 2022, held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, where he was hosted to dinner by the bank’s Group Chairman, Prof. Osinbajo highlighted, “I congratulate Elumelu because he is actually doing everything possible to fly the flag of Nigeria both within and outside the country, by spreading the tentacles of UBA in many countries in Africa, the UK, US, France and now I just heard about the approval to operate in Dubai, so I celebrate him and indeed the entire management of UBA.”
Touching also on digitalisation and climate change, he said these remained critical focal points if the African continent were to develop significantly and fully maximise its capacity in the next few years.
He said although digitalisation has contributed significantly to the economic fortunes of Nigeria and the African economy, there is still room for more growth, especially as digital technology offers the most effective way for Africa to fast-track development.
The UBA Group Chairman’s Forum is an annual interactive and knowledge sharing session which brings together the group and the bank’s subsidiary board members as well as its executive management team from across Africa and globally, to further solidify the vision of the bank and generate ideas for the advancement of Africans and the African economy.
The Vice President pointed out that climate change and how it is handled has a huge role to play on the continent in the coming years.
“There are two crucial issues bound to determine Africa’s growth trajectory in the next few decades – Digitisation and how we handle Climate Change. While digital technology offers the most effective way for Africa to leapfrog African development, clean and renewable energy sources are the fastest-growing segment of energy today and will certainly be a key economic driver well into the future, and must be embraced,” Osinbajo emphasised.
Whilst pointing out that energy demand in Nigeria and across Africa was set to rise to deliver the industrialisation, jobs and economy-wide progress, the Vice President emphasised the need for collaboration to drive the common goal of empowerment, adding that “On this journey towards zero emissions and towards deploying digitisation to initiate mass education and tackle poverty, our continent will fulfil its potentials and deliver prosperity when public and private sector players do their part, in this particular case, via funding.”
Godwin Emifiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was a special guest of the forum.
Mr Elumelu, in a remark, praised the Central Bank Governor saying most of the policies of the governor had given opportunities for financial institutions to thrive and contribute meaningfully to the economies of Africa.
“Africa’s largest economy has raised successful private sector leaders and the CBN Governor, through CACOVID, brought a forum for all of us to discuss together. At our interactive sessions, we discuss the development of Nigeria, talking about key areas like healthcare, security, national economy from the perspective of economic development and growth. People who were on their own successfully have finally come together with a common goal. This was especially evident when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the private sector swung into action under the coalition of the team that the CBN Governor put together,” Elumelu said.
Continuing, he said, “We set up isolation centres across the country and spent so much money on vaccinations, easing the processes around it. We have focused on opening up of the economy. We just put together 100billion to help support our security agencies.
Emefiele said “Central banks and the financial systems have a critical role to play in empowering the solutions to the issues of food security and job creation on our continent.”
Kweku Awotwi, Board Chairman of UBA Ghana, thanked the Vice President and governor, as well as all other dignitaries and board chairpersons from across Africa for making it to the forum.
Source:dailyguidenetwork.com