By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has wooed the British High Commission to invest in the areas of tourism and agriculture and by extension job creation for the youths in the Federal Capital Territory.
Wike made this call when the British High Commissioner, Richard Montgomery led a delegation on a courtesy visit to his office on Tuesday.
He who thanked the Commissioner and his team for the visit said, ” We believe that Abuja is a tourist area, and so should be considered one of the tourist areas. We are willing to cooperate, where investors will come to invest in terms of tourism.”
” Agriculture is also very key. We have very good arable land for the purposes of agriculture, and we are also willing to partner. Agriculture creates many jobs, and we have to remove the youth from the street, so we believe that partnering with people for the creation of agriculture, will also create jobs, so that in fact for us, is a major priority.”
The Minister said that the creation of jobs, and partnerships in agriculture were important to the FCT Administration, noting that agriculture is one avenue to take the youth off the streets.
Furthermore, Wike stated that his administration was “making progress on security”, and his priorities were in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to him, the administration had turned the city into a construction site with various infrastructural developments going on in the nation’s capital while the activities had continued to create jobs for the youths, as he invited the British High Commission to also delve into job creation in the FCT.
“We also realized that before now it does appear that no activities in Abuja, many people complain that Abuja is down but as we came on board activities have come on board.”
“We are proud to say that we have turned Abuja into a construction site, which was not the case in the last past 8 years. When we say priority, like I said here, the creation of jobs is key.”
If you are unable to create jobs, of course, you know what that means for the teeming youths. We believe that the creation of jobs is not only where it is white-collar jobs, by these activities going on, so many of the youths are involved. So, the creation of jobs is a key priority for this administration, he emphasized.
In his remarks, the British High Commissioner, Richard Montgomery, said he agreed with the priority focus agendas of the FCT Minister, adding that the Commission had a programme to support the agriculture value chain.
“I strongly agree with you about the job focus and the agriculture focus. And I am pleased to say that we actually have a program on agriculture, trying to improve the value chain, so that farmers can sell their produce to people that can process and pack, and therefore trade more easily, and that is something which, we hope, is getting off the ground now, to help the agriculture sector.”
Montgomery expressed hope for the envisioned Abuja Industrial Park, which he said would create more jobs while commending the efforts of the security agencies in preventing kidnapping in the territory, and noted that the Commission was equally ready to help in any way possible.
