Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, on Thursday, reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to expanding the state’s economy by unlocking more opportunities for investors that are ready to partner with the state government.
Governor Makinde made this known while receiving teams from Alliance for A Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) that paid a courtesy visit to him at his Ikolaba residence in Ibadan.
The teams were on a working visit to the state.
While welcoming the teams, the governor said agribusiness is one of the priorities of his administration, adding that industrialisation is also very important in driving the economy of the state.
He noted that Oyo State is blessed with a huge land mass as well as many research institutes, universities and colleges of agriculture coupled with a good weather condition that is suitable for agricultural practices.
The governor said: “I want to let you know that we are committed to expanding our economy, pushing the limits in terms of unlocking some of the potentials that are here.”
He added, “We have done quite a bit to link various zones of the state, rather than concentrating everything here in Ibadan as the capital. You will find out that in all our agricultural belts, we’ve done quite a bit, close to 70 or 80 percent of the work that is needed to link all of those places together. We believe that we can be successful together and some of the infrastructure that you see around would support what we are trying to do.”
Speaking on using biogas and organic waste for power generation, Governor Makinde said that the state is capable of working out an energy mix that would move the state speedily towards energy sufficiency.
He said: “We want to see Oyo State as the capital of working out energy mix in Nigeria. We have an estate here where we converted the street lights to solar. There is also a place where we have the highest concentration of sun. We generate quite a lot of waste here and biogas is something that we would be interested in because we don’t have oil and gas here and we want to compete with the oil and gas economy around here.”
Earlier in his address, the Country Director, Alliance for A Green Revolution in Africa, (AGRA), Rufus Idris, said his organisation is interested in partnering and complementing the efforts of Governor Makinde in developing the state agriculture sector, noting that Oyo State has been doing well in agricultural innovations.
Also speaking, the leader of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Michael Schmidt, said the organisation’s mission to the state was to explore investment opportunities and connect with local business operators with the aim of contributing to the state’s industrialisation process.