Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has described trust as critical to the nation’s economic growth.
He said the nation’s entire credit system was based on trust.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice-President made the remarks in a keynote address he delivered at the Nigeria Leadership Initiative webinar series with the theme: ‘A national conversation on rebuilding our national value system’.
The statement was titled: ‘Why merit is crucial to economic growth, by VP Osinbajo’.
Osinbajo was quoted as saying that before credit facility could be extended to a customer, there must be trust that he or she would repay.
He added that citizens would not pay taxes if they did not have the trust that the government would not embezzle such funds.
Osinbajo said, “Economic growth rests upon the substructure of values. The basis of the entire credit system is trust. For a credit facility to be extended to a person, trust is placed in the borrower and his or her willingness and ability to repay.
He also said that citizens who do not trust that their taxes will not be embezzled due to official corruption are unlikely to see any value in paying their taxes. If people stop trusting the media, they are more likely to fall prey to merchants of fake news, which can have a destabilising effect on a nation.
Osinbajo added that the country was in need of a value system that promotes national development.
