Ogun State government has solicited partnership with the United States of America in developing the critical sectors of the state’s economy.
The state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun who stated this when he received the American Consul General to Nigeria, Mr. Will Stevens, noted that the state considered the United States as a progressive partner in the areas of economy, good governance, security, climate change and human capital development around the world.
Stevens led a five-man delegation on a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan Abeokuta on Wednesday,
Governor Abiodun posited that the state, apart from the sophistication of its people and their cognitive political culture, was unanimously and popularly adjudged as the New Jersey of Nigeria and the leading industrial hub in the West Africa sub-region, hence the need to tap from the American experience to further its developmental stride.
The governor said his administration at inception in 2019, assembled a team made up of highly resourceful technocrats and cerebral policy architects and conceptualized a transformational philosophy coined ISEYA, which is an acronym for Infrastructural Development, Social Welfare and Well-being, Education and Human Capital Development, Youth Empowerment and lastly, Agriculture and Food Security.
He said: “Through this concept, we have strategically transformed the state with modern infrastructure, deliberate policy steps to attract businesses and moving the economy from being federal allocation focused to becoming the state with the third largest Internally Generated Revenue in the country.
“The state’s strategic location as the primary gateway to Lagos State – the largest market with the busiest ports in Nigeria – has contributed to its status as the Industrial Hub of Nigeria.
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“Our State is home to one of the largest industrial zones in Sub-Saharan Africa, which includes the 8,000 hectares OPIC-owned Agbara Industrial Estate, which accommodates the Federal Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ), with forty-four (44) operational companies, factory tenants from across the world, with over 6,000 Nigerian employees and an estimated 100,000 metric tons of freight moving in and out daily.”
Prince Abiodun noted that in its quest to make Ogun State the first destination for investors in Nigeria, his administration was constructing an Agro Cargo International Airport at Iperu-Ilishan road in Ikenne local government area of the state, adding that the project was strategically designed to create the needed infrastructure to boost exportation of agricultural and non-agricultural goods.
Governor Abiodun appreciated the American government for her firm stance on democratic governance, specifically on the sanctity of the electoral process as well as supporting different reforms in the electoral process and taking an uncompromising position on electoral offenders.
Speaking in an interview after a closed-door meeting with the governor, the Consul General said their discussions centred on security and health.
He noted that health remained the number one investment in Nigeria as the US government was in the health sector to help Nigeria to reach the 95 95 95 goals of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.
