BENIN CITY – Edo State Governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki says his administration will partner with the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in the areas of agriculture, education and power to boost youth employment and overall industrialization of the state.

Obaseki stated this when he received management team of UNIBEN who were on a courtesy visit to intimate the governor of its Nigerian Agriculture and Innovative Summit at Government House in Benin on Monday.

The governor, commending the Ivory Tower for initiating the summit on Agriculture said his administration would leverage on the vast research capacities and potentials of the institution to revamp the state’s economy.

‘’It is a pleasure that Academia begin to put into practice their research findings; this is what we expect from Ivory Towers; that you put the outcomes of your research for the benefit of the society’’.

He said his administration was already partnering with UNIBEN in the area of education and would like to extend it to other areas like agriculture and infrastructural development.

‘’in the area of infrastructure, we would like to create an Information Technology Park around the Power Plant you want to set up; there is so much we can do around you,’’ He said.

He however suggested that the Agric Summit should be re-branded Edo -UNIBEN Agric Innovative summit so that the state government could partner better with the institution on the hosting of the summit.

Related News

‘’It is a summit which is in line with our administration’s goal on agriculture; it makes sense that we partner with you. We believe it should be a summit co hosted by the Edo government; we can set up our committee to work with the summit committee; we can embellish what you have done with the experience on our side’’, Obaseki said.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof Faraday Orumwense, who led the management team on the visit, said the summit was geared towards job creation for about 1800 unemployed graduates and graduating students drawn from 15 universities.

Orumwense said the summit was being organised by the institution in collaboration with the International Institute for security and governance studies and the Benin-Owena River Basin Development Authority.

He solicited the state government support through its ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and Wealth Creation in the provision of 2500 hectares of land in each of the senatorial district to be used for farming by youths who would be products of the summit.

The VC also requested the state government financial support to host the summit which has financial budget of N16, 750, 000 and invited the governor to declare the summit open.

He added that four states; Edo, Delta, Ekiti and Ondo were expected to participate in the summit which is scheduled to hold from Sept 26 to 28 this year.