Mr Akande this yesterday while addressing the Fourth Economic Communication Workshop for selected journalists at the Treasures Hotels and Suites, Abuja.

The theme of the workshop was: “Budget, Presidential Executive Orders and Industrial Competitiveness as enablers of economic growth”.

Highlights: Mr Akande said President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo are determined to ensure full economic growth for the country.

“A lot more is going to happen and the momentum is gathering for economic reforms. This leadership is committed to change and reform. We hope to wrap up and make impact on the people economically,” he stressed.

He said there will be more diversification towards the non-oil sector of the economy next year and that government expects more revenue from this sector than from the oil sector.

Asked why government was requesting loans in spite of huge funds recovered from looters of the nation’s treasury, Mr Akande said not much has been recovered to stop government from taking these concessionary loans that are meant for infrastructural growth.

He, however, explained that there is a line in the yearly budget, like in 2017 and 2018 where government stated how much it is expecting to get from the recovered loot but that it is put back in the budget as income.

He gave assurance that the whistleblower in respect of the Osborne, Ikoyi funds will be paid before the end of next week, notwithstanding it will be the largest pay-out to be made by the Federal Government.

The vice president’s spokesman said government is going to improve on the ease of doing business in the country.

He said the uncertainties in the economy led to the collapse of the capital market in the past.

“But the situation today is that Nigeria has become investors’ destination as efforts by government continue to attract investors. We would see inflow into capital market and this will increase employment,” he said.

The Technical Adviser to the Vice President on Economic Matters, Fola Adejuwon, who remarked that inflation has been trending down within the last nine months, gave assurance that Nigerians would see the best side of the economy by January.

The Special Assistant on Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to the Vice President, Tola Adekunle-Johnson said the issue of the small scale industries are very close to the heart of Prof. Osinbajo.

According to Mr Adekunle-Johnson, the Vice President has taken their problems upon himself and has been going round the states and in partnership with state governments, finding solutions to them through SMEs clinics made up of agencies that have to do with giving approvals to SMEs.

At such clinics, he said small scale entrepreneurs in just one day can approach any of these agencies and get solutions to problems which hitherto take months to resolve .

He said efforts are also ongoing to enable SMEs secure loans at single digit interest rates from banks like BOI once they are able to provide guarantors.