Governor Peter Mbah says Enugu State’s push to grow its economy from $4.4bn to $30bn is anchored on strategic investments in security, education, healthcare, tourism, aviation and infrastructure. In this interview with ADELANI ADEPEGBA, he explains how his administration is positioning the state as a leading destination for business and investment
How do you plan to achieve your vision of growing Enugu’s GDP from $4.4 billion to $30 billion in eight years?
When we were campaigning for office, we set out a blueprint for Enugu, what Enugu could become under our watch. And that blueprint was based on three factors. One was to grow the economy exponentially, growing from $4.4 billion to $30 billion in eight years. The second was to eradicate poverty. We inherited a poverty headcount of 8 per cent and had committed to bringing it to zero in 8 years. The third was to make Enugu State the number one destination for tourism, living, business and investment. So, if you take the first item there, exponential growth, in growing the economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion, if you do the calculus, that’s about a 27 per cent compound annual growth rate. The important thing was that the growth would be government-enabled but private-sector-driven. And what that means is that we needed to put the fundamentals in place for this private sector to move towards disruption.
