If I win, I’ll tackle poor revenue generating capacity of Ekiti, says Omoyeni, governorship aspirant

Adebisi Omoyeni, a former group managing director of Wema Bank Plc, has promised to tackle the poor revenue generating capacity of Ekiti if he wins the July 14 governorship election.

Omoyeni, who announced that he would contest the election on the platform of the People Alliance for National Development & Liberty Party (PANDEL), blamed government’s inability to pay the salary of workers and pensioners as at when due on the low revenue.

“A major crisis facing Ekiti state today is very poor revenue profile. My administration will tackle this headlong and my experience as a banker will be leveraged to achieve this with a very short time,” he told his supporters at Ikere-Ekiti, his home town, on Thursday.

“We will unlock the dead economic assets of the people by ensuring within 12 months that our people can have C of O on their landed properties which they can use to access credit from banks to do their businesses.

“As at total the total bank credit in Nigeria in Ekiti is less than 0.3 per cent. This is abysmally low. It is only through economic activities of the people that Internally Generated Revenue of the state can be boosted without putting tax burden on our people.

“My administration will work to increase the monthly state IGR to at least N1billion naira within 18 months.”

Omoyeni also promised that his administration would focus on industrialization and education to give the state a new economy and change the character of the state from the “civil service state tag”.

He added that he would create at least 10,000 high paying agriculture and agro-allied jobs for the youth of the state in four years.

“Within four years we will work to give Ekiti a new character different from the tag of civil service state,” Omoyeni said.

“Our government will target rice, cocoa and cassava production and build industry and wealth around the value chain by partnering with key industries and private sector.

“We will create 10,000 quality jobs through integrating production of rice, cocoa and cassava with industrial processors.

“We will bring young people into farming by organizing them into cooperatives and link them up as out-growers to industrial off-takers.”

He once served as deputy to Ayodele Fayose, the state governor.