Edo will attract investors through tech, others – Obaseki

Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has said the state will prioritise technology, agriculture entertainment, and others to bring more investors into the state.

The governor said he would create a better conducive investment climate to woo more investors by prioritising its focus on technology, entertainment, developing its people, tapping its rich cultural heritage, exploring its unique ecology to drive agricultural development, focusing on exploiting technology and manufacturing, building on tourism and entertainment assets and leveraging its locational advantage to drive growth.

Obaseki said this at a business dinner organised by Alaghodaro Economic Summit Ltd/GTE to stimulate the inflow of private capital to the state, to tap from the state’s human, material, and locational advantage to boost the economy.

He said the successful investors in the state rode on the back of the government’s ease of doing business reforms over the past six years across various sectors of the state’s economy.

According to him, “We have moved our systems to an electronic platform. I will be the last governor to sign papers in Edo. I sign all approvals in the state on the oracle platform. The minimum wage is N40,000 and we believe it is not enough.”

The governor noted that on the back of education reforms under the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation programme, the state was considered to have the single largest reform in education on the African continent.

He added, “We are creating more opportunities for technical education so that we can de-emphasise the culture of certificates. We also intend to train mid-level manpower in agriculture and would like to partner with the private sector to develop the curriculum for the institution.”

In his welcome address, the Chairman, Alaghodaro Ltd/GTE, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, said the event was organised to engage with and seek private investors’ partnership and participation in driving the state’s 30-year development plan.