Recession: ‘Entrepreneurship is solution’

ENTREPRENEURSHIP remains the most viable solution to the current recession faced by the country, a social entrepreneur, Alhaji Layi Gobir has said.

He said government at all level should tackle youth unemployment through genuine entrepreneurship schemes.

Gobir spoke with newsmen at the sideline of the 20 year remembrance prayer for his father, the late Ambassador Abubakar Garba Gobir in Ilorin, Kwara State.

He stressed the need for the Federal Government to come up with palliative measures that will cushion the effects of the current economic recession on Nigerians and as well introduce new innovations on quick recovery.

He said while government was working on a long term policy in fixing the rot in the system, it must also put in place palliatives measures to cushion the hardship that the reforms might bring on the masses.

“I think there are people that are qualified and even better just like my late father in government today. It is just that we are facing very difficult time now and I think that governance today requires innovations.

“What I think is a big challenge in the country today is economy and poverty that is ravaging the country generally. So, I think it requires innovations. It is not that we don’t have quality people, we do. But it is just that different things need to be brought to the fore.

“We need prioritisation. The truth is that the current government has very long time views about correcting endemic issues that we have in this country. But it is going to take a while to fix those things because they went wrong a long time ago.

“I think what the government needs to do is to put palliatives in place to cushion the hardship that people are facing now and still continue with the restructuring that it is trying to put in place.

“To get it right in this country, there is a very small book I read a few years ago, it is called a start up nation. It is about Israel. Israel is a country that was built on entrepreneurship. No help from anybody, no oil under the ground. But because of their knack for entrepreneurship, they have been able to build a solid nation,” he said.