Nigerian gov’t must follow after German’s steps for economic dev’t – Braithwaite

The Lagos Governorship candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) Akinwunmi Braithwaite has said that to build an amiable environment for business to thrive in Nigeria, the Government must follow after the approach of its German counterpart.

Braithwaite who spoke in Lagos on the platform of a training organised for business members and friends of Junior Chambers International (JCI), Lagos Metropolitan chapter, canvassed for the German model where Government invests in business and ideas to help entrepreneurs, innovators and founders cushion the pressure of building from scratch.

“Today Germany is a leading export economy, only second to China,” he said, identifying loss of values and systemic inefficiencies as the reason for underperformance in governance.

He highlighted the opportunities in Lagos economy and the emerging posibilities as technology takes centre stage, stating that there is no reason Lagos should not be number one economy in Africa, given its rich human and economic resources.

The training which had budding founders and entrepreneurs across Lagos State in attendance was organised as part of his enterprise engineering initiatives.

The cloud computing expert emphasized the need for founders and entrepreneurs to embrace and evolve as technology advances and impacts lives more drastically than imagined.

Citing the example of Nokia, a global mobile phone giant which started out a timber business, he stated that SMEs should be agile and forward looking.

Responding to questions, he recommended Angel investors, Venture capitalists and Incubators that founders can leverage as they consolidate their business ventures.

In attendance were business stakeholder who shared their concerns about capacity and funding.