By Isaac Olamikan
The infusion of $500 million in investment into the development of oil palm estates and plantations has given a new lease of life to the state’s agricultural sector, leading to increased productivity and better livelihoods in the state.
This was disclosed by the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, during a chat with journalists, noting that the reforms initiated by the state government have led to an improved business environment, The Trumpet gathered.
According to him, “In agriculture, we have attracted almost $500 million investment into palm oil cultivation having allocated the first phase of 60,000 hectares of land under the Edo State Oil Palm Production Programme (ESOPP). Nigeria has not witnessed this scale of oil palm cultivation since independence.”
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He added: “We placed the people at the center of our politics, which led to huge investment in human capital development, particularly across all tiers of the state’s education system, starting with the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme, which has transformed the lives of over 400,000 pupils across the state and improved learning outcomes.
He said that there had been a deliberate emphasis on strengthening partnership with the private sector, from which the government had reaped the immense benefit.
The Governor said the state signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Ossiomo Power Company to provide stable power to government institutions and to also drive the state’s industrial sector.
To this end , he explained that the company generates 95MW out of 550MW it has set out to provide, supported with a distribution infrastructure that has been developed to supply government offices, streetlights and the state’s growing industrial sector with constant power supply With the robust partnership with the private sector, the Governor said , “the state government has succeeded in encouraging generation by attracting firms like Azura (450Mw), Ossiomo Power (95MW) is now proceeding to create its own electricity markets to encourage investments in the distribution of power within the state.
Currently, there is stable electricity to power public institutions and infrastructure in metropolitan Benin City.”
