Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has said that his administration would welcome supports from the United States’ Government in its efforts at improving the lives of the people of the State.
Abiodun stated this on Thursday when he received the Ambassador of the United States of America to Nigeria, Mr. Richard Mills, who paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
The governor, represented by his Deputy, Engr Noimot Salako-Oyedele informed the envoy that his administration has invested a lot in the past five years in the area of empowering the people in line with his vision to improve their ves and living standard.
Abiodun said: “Our vision on assumption of office was to improve the lives and livelihood of our people and the policies of the present administration over the past five years have been consistent.
“We have put a lot on the empowerment of our citizens. We had the Oko’wo Dapo programme where about 100,000 women benefitted to improve their financial capacity because we know that even though we have huge investments at the top end, the engine room of the economy is still the Small and Medium Scale end of it.
“We are working hard to put things in place that will leave a legacy of sustainable development and improve the lives of the people. As a State, we look forward to the support of the United States Government in what we are doing and we are open to work with you and partner with you on any initiative that you have which will improve the lives of our people.”
The governor added that his administration has invested hugely on infrastructure while adequate policies that provide for business friendly environment has been put in place, noting that this has led to more business inflow into the State, especially, Foreign Direct Investments in the last five years.
According to him, facilities such as the Agro-cargo Airport, has been provided to complement the various sectors of the State’s economy and the industries domiciled in the State to enable them import and export their goods without much stress.
“Just a few days ago, we had the ground breaking ceremony for our dry port so I hat our investors and manufacturers would not need to go all the he way to Apapa Port.
“We are also having our integrated transport system to make sure that we make Ogun State desirable for investments and we hope that with these projects added to all the other things we are doing, Ogun State would continue to be attractive for business and we look forward to doing more business with United States based companies,” he added.
Responding, Ambassador Richard Mills described the Ogun State as dynamic in the area of business and economic opportunities with a great deal of American investments.
He said through his discussion with the government officials, he has come to realize interesting programmes from small businesses to women entrepreneur as well as huge investments opportunities that abound in the State.
The Envoy said: “Ogun State is the State I wanted to visit for a long time since I arrived in Nigeria. It is a State where we can learn a lot, share programmes based on the successes that you have here.”
