Former military head of state Yakubu Gowon and the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, are some of the eminent personalities invited to the BusinessDay State Competitiveness and Good Governance Award for the year 2020.
While Gowon is the Special Guest of Honour, Bayero is the Royal Father of the Day at the event taking place at the Congress Hall of the prestigious Transcorp Hotel, Abuja.
The award, in its 8th edition, is BusinessDay’s contribution towards motivating governors of the 36 states of the federation to innovate and harness the various human capital, mineral and natural potential inherent in their states to create viable subnational economies.
At the round-up of data gathering, 18 governors emerged qualified to contest for the various awards in specified fields.
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An Award Committee, made up of eminent personalities, gathered primary data through on-the-spot assessments, interactions with the locals and the analysis of secondary data provided on different socio-economic parameters as published by the nation’s data agency, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The Committee, equipped with socio-economic parameters on the 36 states of the federation, evaluated the impact of their administration’s policies and programmes on economic transformation, agric development, promotion of ease of doing business, the security of lives and property, as well as reviving the rural economy through rural and urban infrastructure development.
The state governors who have distinguished themselves are nominated for different award categories after extensive research by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) and the field teams who have been sent to different states for on-the-site inspections and to get the views of the indigenes with regard to how government policies benefitted them.
The parameters employed for the assessment of the 36 states included IGR growth, capital importation distribution across states, unemployment rates Q2 2020, literacy rate 2019, Net Enrolment Rate 2019, the hours spent to get water 2019 and percentage of water in the state from piped and public water sources in 2019. Others are; growth in local debt 2019/2020, growth in external debt 2019/2020, fiscal viability Index 2019 and the debt-income ratio in 2019.
The different award categories are Excellence in Governance, Fastest Growing State Economy, Transparency in Governance, Best Governor in Urban and Rural Infrastructure Development, Best Governor in Education Development, Best Governor in Healthcare Development, Best State in ICT, Best State in Manpower Development, Best State in the Provision of Security and the Best Governor in Agriculture Development.
Others are the Best Governor in Tourism Development, Best Governor in Housing Development, the state with the Best Ease of Doing Business, Youth & Sports Development and the State with the Most Improved Security.
The BusinessDay States Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards was introduced in 2013 to bring about healthy competition amongst the subnational governments in Nigeria with a view to encouraging state governments to explore their richly endowed human capital, natural and agricultural resources.
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