How to get millions out of poverty – Elumelu

The Chairman, United Bank for Africa who is also the founder of Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony Elumelu, has urged the Federal Government to create conducive and enabling environment for small scale businesses to thrive, so as to pave way for the realization of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term dream of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty in the next four years.

He made the call, yesterday, in Kano during the 35th convocation ceremony of the Bayero University Kano at which he was conferred a honourary doctorate degree in business administration over his laudable efforts over the years in human capital development across the African continent.

He said, “There are variety of ways to lift hundreds of citizens out of poverty but two clearly stand out and two are very dear to me. One, increasing the number of jobs in the economy and two, is creating more opportunities for our young entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into more businesses that employ labour.

“The Federal Government must play its leadership role by creating the enabling environment and conducive infrastructure that enable the creation of jobs and economic opportunities for our youth fold.”

He also urged government to abolish multiple taxations for small businesses and make business become easier by prioritising SMEs trainings and capacity development.

Elumelu also asked state and local governments to explore and leverage on areas they have comparative advantage to attract investments that would transform the economic fortunes of the areas.