Don urges FG to lift licensing requirements on local businesses

From Yakubu Mustapha Minna

Professor May Ifeoma Nwoye of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL) has said that in an effort to curb the menace of high rate of poverty in Nigeria, the federal government must lift licensing requirements bedeviling small scales entrepreneurs and introduce tax breaks to encourage growth of businesses or remain a mirage.
Professor Nwoye made the declaration at the weekend in an inaugural lecture, said that government poverty alleviation programmes have continued to fail due to poor implementation processes.
She stressed the need for government to promote entrepreneurship and establish a multi-dimensional creative community for the country to sail out of endemic poverty.
The university don solicited that politicians and civil servants should hands off implementation of poverty programmes and allowed the active participation of poor people or local communities.
“Indeed to prevent the younger generation from joining the poverty train, entrepreneurship education programmes and seminars should provide introduction to the values and basics of creating and running businesses” she said.
Professor Nwoye further charged on government to give high priority to the development of rural areas to mitigate the problem of rural – urban migration, adding that of urgent necessity is the building of rural infrastructures like electricity to stimulate gainful employment for unskilled people,
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mohammed Maiturare in his remarks however described poverty as a weapon of mass destruction that should not be allowed to ravage the nation.