21st July, 2019
By Adejoke Adeleye, Abeokuta
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has given reasons why he needs financial support from banks to move the state to the next level.
He called on financial institutions to to assist his government to carry out programmes towards taking the State to the next level.
Abiodun, who spoke in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, when he received a team from the Wema Bank Plc, led by its Group Managing Director, Mr. Demola Adebise, said his administration was poised at repositioning the health, education, infrastructure and the agricultural sectors as well as reviving the security apparatus to effectively protect the lives and property of the people.
“We will lay emphasis on security knowing full well that being the gateway state, hoodlums will like to move from the neighbouring states and countries to cause havoc and so security will be one of our priority areas”, he said.
He also hinted that the state and Lagos would set up a commission to deal with issues concerning physical planning, security and taxes, adding that roads linking neighbouring states would be rehabilitated to ease movement of goods and services, just as a one-stop shop would be put in place to ensure ease of doing business.
Abiodun added that the government was working towards reducing the large number of unemployed youths in the State by establishing vocational training centres to provide training on tiling, carpentry, shoe-making, fashion design, among others to make them self reliance.
The governor noted that his administration would leverage on all the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) intervention programmes in the agricultural sector, to make the State the food basket of the nation, calling on the bank to be a major player in the State’s developmental drive by participating actively in the Security Trust Fund.
Earlier, Mr. Adebise, while pledging the support of the bank to ensure that the present administration succeeded, said their financial house would participate fully in the security trust find and the digitisation process of the State.
While urging the state to put more Infrastructure in place as it was the bedrock to industrialisation, Adebise said the bank would partner the state to access intervention funds from the CBN to revitalised its agricultural sector and it’s value chain.