By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Business community in Enugu State has asked the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state, Mr. Peter Mbah, to vigorously pursue his development proposals if elected governor.

Among the proposals that excited the industrialists were Mbah’s strategies on strengthening the Easy of Doing Business that will involve tax consolidation, sustainable water and electricity supply, modernisation of agriculture, infrastructure improvement and diversification of transportation in the state.

They made the approval of Mbah’s proposal at the Enugu Business Town hall meeting with the PDP gubernatorial candidate, at ECCIMA House in Enugu, on Tuesday.

They included the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, ECCIMA; the Enugu State Coalition of Business and Professional Association (ECOBPA), and Enugu Women in Business, among others,

The ECCIMA Board of Trustee Chairman and the CEO of Roban Group, Sir Rob Anwatu, after listening to Mbah’s detailed explanations said “I can see why tomorrow is here. This is first-hand information. I now know Peter Mbah. He is a Man prepared for a job ahead.”

In his presentation, Mbah said that he came to share his dream and desire of growing the state economy in a manner that will shock the naysayers, noting that his manifesto was people-focused and a preferred destination for investment, tourism and living.

He said that him and his team envision an Enugu that could achieve a zero poverty headcount index with up to $30 billion GDP, which will be a departure from the state’s marginal growth that has not been experienced in the past, insisting that the state must grow exponentially with a radical approach and deployment of technological bundle of possibilities.

He identified one of the key sectors that will drive the economy to include commerce and industry, stressing that as a businessman he understood the pains of running businesses in Nigeria.

“I’m also a CEO of a thriving industry and I know what it takes dealing with external factors such as massaging the ego of regulators. So I feel your pains and I don’t think any other person will do better than me. We’ll create the enablers of ease of doing business, the skills and the labour, our job is to ensure that we take care of them.

“We will look at the sectoral classifications and de-risk their commerciality. We are going to ask tough questions, discuss with business owners and ensure that we increase our service levels. We’ll set up an Enugu state industrial fund for those who don’t have access to funds.

“There will be an innovation incubation centre for talents, where we will provide amenities such as electricity, water and internet to explore their full potential. We’ll inject economic activities to enhance our GDP,” Mbah pledged.

He also disclosed that under his administration, agriculture will be technologically driven to enhance productivity, provide agro-processing zones in the three Senatorial zones which will make lack of storage for agricultural produce a thing of the past.

Mbah also promised to make the state an oil-producing state with its several oil fields and work with the other governors of south east states to build the region’s economy.

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