Former Aviation Minister, Chief Osita Chidoka, who is a leading aspirant of the United Progressive Party (UPP) in the November 18, 2017 Anambra State governorship election, says his government will avail traders in the state financial facilities and international business connections as part of his economic agenda to reposition the state as the commercial nerve centre of the nation.

While commissioning his campaign offices in Ihiala and Ekwusigo Local Government Areas on Monday, Chidoka lamented the level of neglect suffered by the masses in the areas and vowed to ensure fast-tracked interventions through accelerated development, adequate government presence and equal representation of the areas in the government.

Restating that Anambra people are very hard working and highly creative but have been impeded due to lack of financial assistance and appropriate business environment, Chidoka said they only needed the right encouragement to excel as global players in their various fields of endeavor.

“Our target is to turn around the fortunes of our people. We will therefore run a government that pays attention to the actual needs of the citizens and apply the resources of the state to projects that have direct bearing on the masses. Anambra people are known for their prowess as traders and business people. We will therefore do all it takes to make them excel in their businesses.

“In our first year in office, government will create a special financial package to provide our traders with the resources to upgrade their businesses. We will then step in to modernise our existing markets and open new ultra modern markets in other strategic parts of the state, including Ihiala. We have perfected plans to relocate and modernise the Nkwor Ogbe market here in Ihiala and to empower the traders to upgrade their businesses.

“We must make our traders in Anambra to become global players by availing them with facilities and platforms that directly connects them with their business partners in other parts of the country and the world so that they will explore new, faster and more profitable ways of doing business and ultimately excel as individuals and groups,” he said.

In Ekwusigo, Chidoka said his government would ensure that the fortunes of the people were turned around through access to equal opportunity, infrastructural development and special government interventions in critical sectors of economic and social lives.

He said the time had come to establish a government that would not place the burden of running the state on small business owners, the artisans, the commercial motorbike men who are already struggling to find their daily meals; but a government that would be able to harness the abundant resources available to the state for the welfare of the people.

He therefore promised to review all extortionate taxes and ensure that that people are no longer harassed or burdened by such levies.

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