Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Friday said his administration plans to increase the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N60 billion by the end of 2023.
The governor said the state’s growth will come from leveraging its comparative advantage and exploring opportunities in culture, forestry, manufacturing, agriculture and technology, among other sectors of the state’s economy, to drive development.
Speaking at the sixth edition of the yearly Alaghodaro Investment Summit, with the theme, “Edo’s Transformation: Partnerships, Resilience, Impact,” in Benin City, he said since he took over the seat of power in 2016, the IGR has progressively grown to about N35 billion but was slowed down in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and it is expected to rise to N41.5 billion by the end of 2022.
“In the last six years, things have not been easy, but we have tried in our own little way. You can see that from 2016 when we got in, we tried to increase IGR. Except for the COVID-19 year, we sustained an increase in our IGR and we hope to end next year with over N60bn IGR.
“We see growth ahead of us and this growth is going to come from certain endowments that we have whiched most people don’t have. Our culture – people must come and see us and admire what our forebears built. Our forestry assets – the world is talking about net zero carbon and we have something to contribute to the environment and environmental economy.
“Manufacturing is the way to go. Edo has the largest onshore gas reserve in Nigeria with most of our gas in the swamps and the offshore. With that energy source, there’s no reason we cannot generate enough energy to attract investors to drive industrialization. Agriculture, that’s what we grew up with. Of our 19 million square km of land, there is practically no way we cannot grow something. For us, the future is technology, because the world is talking about technology and that is the new area of focus,” Obaseki said.
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He, therefore, emphasized the need for Nigeria to focus on moving the economy from consumption to production, saying “In spite of all the challenges that face us as a country, we have over 200 million people who are going to be 450 million in 2050 and we will not stop consuming. Therefore, if this is our reality, it means that we cannot and should not be despondent.
“God has given us something that he has not given to many countries around the world. We have a huge domestic market and these over 200 million people have to consume. If we cannot import, are we going to die? We will have to create the things we consume in this country. That is why the government must now rely on those who have the capacity and knowledge to produce the things that we consume. Government cannot continue to behave as if they have all the resources because they don’t. The people who have the resources are, you, the citizens – the private sector.
“Hence, the government has to be restructured to ensure that they trust us and are able to bring the resources we need for the benefit of all of us. Hence, states will have to reorder their priorities and that is what we have done over the last six years, to make sure that we can meet our financial obligations to the people who work for the government and our citizens,” he further said.
Highlighting some key achievements, he said his administration identified six areas namely, rebuilding institutions, economic revolution, social welfare of the people, infrastructure development, environmental sustainability and Arts, culture and tourism in order to ameliorate the myriads of challenges confronting Edo residents.
“In terms of focus, we are concentrating on Agriculture. We are making sure we remove the risk and disputes of land in communities from people who want to invest in agriculture. Between last year and this year, we have given out 63,000hectares to seven investors for oil palm production.
“For healthcare, our strategy is to spend most of all the money on Primary Healthcare and then partner with private sector to set up secondary and tertiary hospitals. That is what we have done in Benin specialist hospital. We are rebuilding Stella Obasanjo hospital and once we finish, we will partner with the private sector to manage the hospital,” he added.
Asue Ighodalo, chairman of the board, Alaghodaro Ltd./Gte, in his welcome address, said the timing of this summit was apt as it presents opportunity for key stakeholders and the private sectors to determine how to navigate the headwinds facing the nation’s economy.
Ighodalo commended Obaseki and his team for repositioning the state for economic progress and prosperity, saying “His vision and leadership have led to the creation of a long-term vision for the state, and the implementation of several initiatives and programmes to improve the lives of our citizens.”
