This state’s Chief Economic Adviser and Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Okubadejo, made this assertion in Abeokuta, yesterday, while giving a breakdown of the 2021 budget.
Okubadejo, who explained that Governor Dapo Abiodun administration’s ambition was to improve on the real sector and jobs creation, noted that the budget would also target poverty reduction and encourage investors.
Explaining that part of the vision was to deliberately encourage private sector participation, he said Abiodun’s economic agenda would drive investments.
“The overall vision and strategic direction of the present administration is to make the economy of the state the biggest in the country in a manner that would ensure real sector growth, create jobs and also significantly eradicate poverty amongst our people,” he stated.
On the agricultural sector, which he described as the major economic driver, Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Adeola Odedina, pointed out that the state planned to expand the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) with the introduction of cotton, oil palm and cocoa in 2021, just as 10,000 hectares of land had been allocated for cotton farmers in the state.
Odedina said the state government approved a new framework for land use in the state, adding that access to land would become a seamless process in 2021.
He also noted that the state government would scale up its engagement with the World Bank, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in its bid to make the state an official special agro-processing zone.
On his part, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, who disclosed that government’s vision which would focus on the Ogun Health Improvement Programme, added that hub and spoke model, standardisation of health facilities, health workers, equipment and innovative funding, as well as collaboration with the private sector, would be the three pillars to drive the health sector.
