Ademola Adeleke, Governor of Osun State, has revealed his administration’s plans to diversify the state’s economy away from its current reliance on government servant salaries and towards a contemporary agro-industrial oriented and creative sector centred economy.
The governor stated that this would be accomplished by constructing a functional cargo/commercial airport with the goal of growing Osun as an export-oriented economy as well as a worldwide tourism destination due to the presence of significant Yoruba cultural treasures.
Adeleke, in his new year statewide broadcast on Monday, recalled his administration’s successes, noting that it had successfully blocked leakages in public finance, addressed corruption and revenue diversion in the solid mineral sector, and restored local government administration for grassroots development.
According to him, the government also launched on mass water project provision, completed 91 kilometres of road building, and provided free medical operations to over 50,000 recipients in the previous year, among other things.
The governor said his –
“dream is for an Osun economy that gradually moves away from its civil service status to a modern agro-industrial based, creative industry-focused economy, stressing that such, “diversification with a functioning cargo/commercial airport will grow Osun as an export-oriented economy as well as a global tourist destination, being the host of important Yoruba cultural assets.
“We are implementing an ambitious state agenda which targets infrastructure upgrade, diversifying the state economic base and deepening the revenue structure of the state.
“For the infra upgrade, we are convinced that the state economy cannot attract the required investment to realise its industrial potential unless the problem of infrastructure deficit is addressed. Hence, we have started the implementation of the multi-billion naira infra plan that I launched a few months ago.
“For economic diversification, we are growing the creative industry; we are opening up the industrial sector; we are attracting investors in key sectors; and we are re-skilling our youth through the soon-to-be-unveiled Imole Youth Corps. To deepen the revenue base, we are tapping into the solid mineral sector; we are reforming the tax sector to eliminate multiple taxation while widening the tax base.”
cc: Punch Ng
