To create a pool of opportunities for residents in the country’s 36 states, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo urged state governments to create an enabling environment to allow local and foreign investors to channel their funds into businesses in their respective states.
He said this at the Ekiti State inaugural investment forum in Ado-Ekiti, the state’s capital.
He charged state governors to conduct operations in the state like a “nation” within the Federation, providing necessary infrastructure and services to residents.
Osinbajo said, “You have a bigger GDP and even more revenues than many nations. There is a different mindset when you are sure of a monthly allocation of cash at least enough to pay salaries, whether you generate income or not. This is the challenge. The so-called Dutch disease, one becomes complacent.
“The economy of the sub-national is a peculiar animal,” he said. “The state within the Federation is not a nation, but it must behave like one, it derives some resources from the Federal pool, and generates some income, the overall sum will provide infrastructure and services to the community.
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“The size of the sum and the quantum of opportunity available to provide livelihoods for the populace will depend on how the State enables local and external investors, small and large to put their resources into business and commercial activity business in the State.
“The funded portion of the state’s budget is after all a mere fraction of the sum total of economic activity or income-generating activity, formal or informal within the State. So, the attractiveness of a state to commerce is a radical issue.
“The very lives and livelihoods of the people within the borders of the State, whether the people will live prosperous and happy lives, be educated, have access to affordable medical care, depends on it.”
Giving a practical example of a state that had turned the fortune of an abandoned facility, he said, “An excellent example is the formerly State-Owned, Ikun Dairy Farms at Ikun Ekiti. After 40 years of inactivity, the State Government divested 76% of its shareholding to a private dairy company, Promasidor, resulting in a company that is now producing over 80,000 liters of milk per month from a herd of about 500 cows.
“There is also the recent concessioning of hospitality facilities such as the iconic Ikogosi Warm Springs, affirming the same principle (of collaboration). This is a very important principle, the idea that it is the private sector that really should lead the economy.”
He added, “It would therefore be very important for Ekiti State to leverage its famed love and passion for education by focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
“STEM education is vital for being able to participate in the 4th Industrial Revolution which is at once a digital age and a knowledge age. This must be the Fountain of the Knowledge Economy.”
