Ogun creates 6 economic development clusters

The Ogun government has created six economic development clusters in three senatorial districts of the state.

The new economic clusters are located at Ijebu-Ode, Remo, Magboro, Abeokuta and Imeko, with one more at another area of the state. Each of the clusters sits across 10,000 hectares with necessary critical infrastructure, including residences, medical facilities, smart cities, financial institutions, among others.

The action, according to the government is aimed at improving the ease of doing business, attract more investors, create employment opportunities and earn more revenue.

Speaking at a cocktail party organised by the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (OGIRS) in Abeokuta for companies and institutions operating in the state, Dapo Okubadejo, the commissioner for finance and chief economic adviser, said the clusters were created for the first time in the state and could be likened to industrial estates.

He said “We have six economic development clusters across the state. They are well balanced to take advantage of the peculiarities of those locations and where we are spending significant resources in infrastructure.

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“The first one is Ijebu Economic Development Cluster which is around Ijebu Epe new tolled road we have just constructed. This will have a lot of cities in there including medical city, automobile city, knowledge city, smart city, MSME park and the hub for financial centre.

“We are currently master planning these clusters such that we can easily attract to those industrial concerns in those places.

“We also have the aerotropolis in the Remo Cluster. The aerotropolis in a nutshell is simply called an airport city where you carefully planned the real estate around the airport that would cater for other commercial concerns such as logistics and distribution.

“So companies that actually have their warehouses there such as light manufacturing would also be near there so that people can produce and export.

“So it is a whole city and that city is properly planned. The location of this agro cargo airport is one that is easily accessible. It is right at the intersection between Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Shagamu-Benin Expressway.

“So, there can’t be better accessibility than that as even the Lagos Airport is at a dead end.”

Also speaking at the event, Olugbenga Olaleye, chairman of OGIRS, said the government has created the enabling environment to encourage ease of doing business which had increased revenue accrued to the state, adding: “As at the half of this year, we have done N54 billion of our IGR.”