President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to step up his campaign against corruption during an interactive session in Berlin with representatives of the Nigerian Community in Germany.
President Buhari promised that his administration will reciprocate the gesture by strengthening critical institutions needed for sustainable development and prosperity.
“We are working hard to empower our institutions especially our educational institutions,” he said.
He added that Nigerians backed his efforts to improve security and the country’s economic growth.
President Buhari told Nigerians in the Diaspora that it was regrettable that over the years, oil marketers had colluded with banks to defraud Nigeria of much needed revenue from the commodity.
“One third of the activities of the oil marketers are fraudulent, you can see how some of us Nigerians are wicked,” President Buhari said. “They just take the money, stamp some papers without bringing the product and this fraudulent activity was between bankers and businessmen.”
German based Nigerian artist Vivian Timothy who attended the meeting with President Buhari described it as a “memorable event”.
Meanwhile President Buhari has disclosed plans to launch the Development Bank of Nigeria to strengthen the government’s economic diversification programme.
“Our ambitions of creating a diversified and inclusive economy in Nigeria can only be achieved by having a mix of small, medium and large businesses,” President Buhari said. “This is why we worked with the German development agency, KFW, in designing the Development Bank of Nigeria which will support the small and medium size enterprises both financially and technically to ensure they take their rightful place in the industrialization value chain.”
He confirmed that the bank would soon begin operations.
