BENIN CITY- The Chairman of the Edo State Economic and Strategic Team, Mr Godwin Obaseki has disclosed plans by his government to provide stable power supply across the state by 2018 when elected as governor of the state.
Obaseki who made this known yesterday at a Seminar organised by Edo Accord Initiative tagged: “Edo United: Edo state in the eye of the present Economic downturn/the future” said with the Azura power generating project and other power projects wooed by his team to the state, the issues of power outage will soon be a thing of the past.
The governorship aspirant noted that the only way to achieve the dream of stable power supply in the state is to support a candidate with the vision of Governor Adams Oshiomhole in developing the state.
According to him, “If you have taken note of what is happening in Edo state, before Adams Oshiomhole there was nothing on ground, they said Edo was a poor and civil service state. They couldn’t build roads, schools or factories for that matter but for the last seven years, we have tired. At least you can drive from Airport road down to Ugbowo without traffic and bad roads. So if you want to go to farm in Anagbette in Edo north, there is road to take you to the farm before there was no road to that place.
“. As we speak, our investors have started building big electricity generating plants across the state that will generate about 450 megawatt of electricity each. The total electricity we consume in Edo state is about 100 but these people are building a plant that would generate 450 each. So by the end of 2017, we will have enough electricity for Edo state.
He continued, “Now Oshiomhole has built road, we have refurbished schools, we have brought some investors, and the next stage will be to build industry. We have asked investors to come and build industries because we have roads, good schools, electricity, water and other social amenities that they need to run the factory.
“ my message for the youths today especially the Community development associations is that when investors want land to set up industries, you should welcome them and not exploit them because they are bringing jobs.
He added that industries are coming to Edo because of the shortage of foreign exchange, many of the things we have to import are now to be produced in Nigeria and what we want to do is that anybody who wants to manufacture in Nigeria, as he attributed it to his experiences while in the stock exchange market.
“I have helped many companies to raise money and set up factories in the world, I would attract them to Edo state to locate because I know what they need. In the next three to four years’ time, we will get enough industry that will create enough work for the people of Edo state..When I become governor.
I need not to worry because most of time will be to bring work and investment to Edo state. I know two years is a long time, but how are we going to survive before then? If we say things are bad in Edo state, we should go to some other states that have not been able to pay salaries for the past three months”.
The economic expert further promised to provide more micro-finance for small businesses to enable people set up their business which the government will facilitate through micro-finance bank where people can take loan at low interest rate.
According to him “people will be encouraged to join cooperatives by putting on little save to enable them access up to N500, 000 for individuals with the bank knowing your identity and how to pay back the loan.”.
Earlier, the chairman of the organization, Edo Accord Initiative, Mr. Idahosa Dennis described the vision of Godwin Obaseki as a very brilliant one for the people of Edo State and haven seen his contributions to the achievements of Adams Oshiomhole one would seen that if elected as governor of the state sky will be our limit.
