The Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote told the extended NEC meeting,yesterday,that there was the need for the private sector companies in Nigeria to set aside one per cent of their annual profit to support ,primary health care development and other critical projects that will grow the economy.

“Since the rebasing of the economy, Nigeria is no longer seen as a highly poor country. Nigeria is going to be 411 million people by 2050. Today, more than half of our population is very young and we should try to educate them and ensure that they are healthy,”

Vice President Osinbajo, however, noted that high oil prices and economic growth of the previous years did not translate into a better life for most Nigerians because grand corruption prevented investments in healthcare, education and infrastructure.

“To put Nigeria’s money to work for Nigerians, is doing the most with the least. And we have stayed true to that vision. Even as oil prices went into free fall, we ramped up investments in infrastructure as well as our social spending,”

He noted that Nigeria has strong economic growth and development ambitions, encapsulated in her Economic Recovery and Growth Plan that was launched in 2017, but agreed that all of those lofty ambitions can only be achieved through the determined application of human skills and effort.

“And for that effort to be meaningful and productive, it has to come from people who are healthy, educated, and who are, and feel empowered.
“It is this realisation that has helped ensure that one of the primary planks of the ERGP is ‘Investing in our people’.

And it is for this reason that we are expanding the reach and quality of our healthcare, through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). We are working to guarantee basic education for all persons, whilst also upgrading and modernising the quality of secondary and post-secondary education.

“Because this is the 21st century, we know that it is also important to ensure that our young people are prepared for the economies of the future, not the past. This means that STEM education is critical, and that technology must lie at the heart of every one of our educational offerings,” the vice president said.

Fielding questions after the session, Dangote said: “We have had a very good meeting and one of the things we suggested that will ensure we fund our health sector very well is for the private sector to give one percent of their annual profit.

“That will actually help in raising quite a lot of money because since the rebasing of the economy, we are going to get out of most of these donations we are getting from Global Alliance for Vaccines (GAV), World Bank and the rest of the donors, putting Nigeria as a rich country and not a poor country anymore.

“Nigeria will be almost number three by 2050 in the World’s population. So we have to make sure that we have a very healthy society,''

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