Amosun: I am happy to say Ogun is number one

Ibikunle Amosun, governor of Ogun state, says his state is number one among the 36 states of the federation.

Speaking with state house correspondents after visiting President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja on Monday, Amosun said his administration had succeeded in boosting the internally generated revenue (IGR) of Ogun.

He also lamented the effect of the current economic situation, but said government was doing every thing possible to address it.

“I am happy to report that in Nigeria today, Ogun is number one. Ogun state is the industrial hub of Nigeria, there is no state that has the kind of resources we have in terms of numbers and value,” he said

“If you check the indices that have been released, we doubled our revenue with about 97.8%. The next state to us I think was 41%. We are working hard and we are doing well but there is still lots more to be done.

“I am happy that we got several investors, particularly those that are not even from Nigeria and so many people that are in Nigeria, that operate here and that is why we showcased everybody.

“We are not limiting it at that, we want to take it forward.  Not agriculture alone, we want to take full advantage of the full value chain that agriculture offers. We want to take full advantage of the value-chain that agriculture offers.

“And what do I mean by that? Whatever we grow we must process; whatever we processed, we must package; whatever we packaged, we must market; whatever we market, we must in the final analysis find transport it to final consumer.

“You know that everybody is working and that is what we are trying do.”

On the 3rd Ogun State Investors’ Forum, Amosun said the event was meant to diversify the state’s economy in three areas of agriculture, environment and transportation.

“This year, we believe that we need to zero in three key areas and that is agriculture, environment and transportation and the reason is not far-fetched,” he said.

“If you are going to diversify as we are saying everybody believes and really that is the truth there is no alternative except that diversification, particularly, even before this dwindling in oil prices, we realised that how many people can be employed.

“The only way to go is to diversify into agriculture, environment and the transportation I have mentioned.

“They employ people, they will employ our people. We will create wealth for them. Without that nothing can happen.

“Indeed, those nations that had got it right, if you see them you will discover that they have all these cottage industries, small; small industries.

“They are their enablers and that is why we believe that once we zero in on those three areas; of course, we will get it right.”