Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, yesterday, directed that all revenue collection functions of the state Government would be directly supervised by the Governor’s Office. This is contained in a statement signed by Special Adviser, Media Projects to Edo State Governor, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, and made available to newsmen in Benin City.

The statement reads: “At the end of the month of June, 2023, the Governor’s Office reviewed the year-to-date revenue status of the government, showing that earnings fell under the N30 billion target.

“On account of that, the governor has queried all Permanent Secretaries and Heads of revenue generating agencies within government, including council areas, who have not met their mid-year target.

“He has ordered that they are now to come under the direct supervision of the Governor’s Office to ensure the attainment of the N62 billion target at the end of the year.”  Obaseki also, yesterday, at the BusinessDay CEO Forum, showcased investment opportunities in Edo and the impacts of the public-private partnerships on various sectors of the state’s economy, including education, agriculture, healthcare, public service, security and infrastructure, among others.

Speaking at the event in Lagos with the theme, “Charting a Course to Growth and Development,” Obaseki said reforms and projects by the government over the past six years have transformed the state into Nigeria’s emerging industrial, commercial, and investment hub.

According to him, Edo State is an exemplar for Nigeria an emerging industrial, commercial and investment hub of Nigeria. He said: “We have laid our policies on investment growth and industrialisation on a few key pillars. First, we are ensuring we focus on the engine of government, the bureaucracy, because if the government doesn’t work, the economy will not work.”

On reforms in the education sector, the governor said: “For us, it is about people, focusing on talents. We realised that foundational learning was very weak and we saw this when we had to deal with the issue of human trafficking. We have invested hugely in the past six years to strengthen foundational learning because without that you cannot build anything else in terms of developing talents.”

Speaking on successes recorded by the government in industrialisation leveraging public-private partnerships, Obaseki said: “For us, there are so many advantages we have to share, and the key is knowing how to lean on those advantages. What we have done is try to attract private sector partners into key areas we think we have a comparative advantage.”