Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has urged Nigerians to patronize indigenous products as a way of supporting the economic growth of the country.
Governor Ikpeazu said that except Nigerians endorse their own products and take pride in them they would be merely supporting the economic growth of other nations.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists at The Footwear Academy, Abayi Aba where he also enrolled as a student of the Academy, the Governor noted that there is need for Nigerians to take the lead in consuming their products to enable others follow suit.
Ikpeazu said: “I am not being sentimental when i want to canvas that we continue to patronize for made in Nigeria/Aba Products. I am canvassing based on the fact that the best shoes are made here.
“If we don’t endorse our own products and take pride in wearing them, then we will just be supporting the economic growth of other nations without looking at our own.
“We can’t really grow without leveraging the strength we have to provide ready markets or products.
“Who says we can’t compete with the Chinese and sell shoes to Walmart? It will happen very soon.
“Between now and the next two years, nobody will ignore the products coming from Aba. Very soon there will be no option than made in Aba Products”.
Governor Ikpeazu commended the intellectual dimension which the Footwear Academy is bringing into shoemaking business and assured that his administration would give impetus to the Academy for its growth.
Earlier, while receiving the Governor, the founder of the Academy, Mr Bentley Chukwuemeka, assured the Governor of their commitment to producing quality footwears as well as producing well trained hands with a view to sustain the place of Aba as a destination of choice in shoe making business.
Governor Ikpeazu was accompanied by the Director General of the Abia State Marketing and Quality Control Agency, Mr. Sam Hart.
