Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Friday scored his administration high on the socio-economic and infrastructural growth of the state.
The governor said that his administration had put the state on solid footing on those two parameters to compete with any State economy globally.
Governor Obaseki, who spoke during the 7th Alaghodaro Summit held in Benin City, the state capital, boasted that the process of shared opportunity that led Edo State into the future started seven years ago during his first Alaghodaro Summit.
“In laying the foundation for the future, we identified seven areas which are, education, institutional reforms, economic, investment, agriculture, manufacturing and production. All the things we set for ourselves in our first summit have been achieved”, the governor announced.
The governor submitted that with the challenges Nigeria is facing now, the Federal Government “if we have to experience growth and move the nation forward.”
“We are lucky that we took this step seven years ago in our first Alaghodaro Summit. What the country is facing now means we must go back to redesign and re-engineer the country for growth. We have 200 million people yearning for goods and services every day, but we don’t have the Foreign Exchange earnings to support the level of imports that we have seen over the years. We are paying the price of not being able to hold the value of our local currency”, he further submitted.
Governor Obaseki added that the key to changing the narrative as a country or state “is to encourage production”, saying, “70 percent of what we import into the country can be produced in Edo state.”
“So, if the government is redesigned to work with the private sector to have more productions going on in the country, then we would reduce the pressure on the foreign exchange, whether in educational or health service among other services.” Obaseki postulated.
He said there was no reason paying two to three billion dollars annually on school fee abroad, adding that that was the reason he and his predecessor in collaboration with the private sector established an excellent university affiliated with schools in Europe and America, so that parents would not send their children out of the country for quality education.
“The future we see is to have the best educational institution where every child must have a skill, vocation by age 15 and a global source and destination for tech talents, health tourism among others. So, we just need as a state and country to focus on production, and the key to ensuring that we produce the thing we need is to train our people, ensuring our educational system is right and people have skills because the raw materials already exist and it is not rocketing science”, Obaseki said.
He re-emphasised that in the last seven years in Edo State had shown that “it is possible that we can make Nigeria great again.”
Speaking earlier, the Summit Chairman, Mr. Asue Ighodalo, said that the summit was organised to showcase the progress recorded in transforming the state into an investment haven, adding that the Alaghodaro Summit was a platform used to interact with business people to exchange ideas that can move the state forward.
Among dignitaries at the colourful Summit which was held at the New Festival Hall, Government House, was Mr. Patrick Iyamabo, Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Limited.
Some of the participants, who spoke to journalists, described Alaghodaro Summit’s partnership with First Bank, which is celebrating its 130 years of financial stability, as very rewarding.
. TheWitness
