Ogun will become investment destination of choice – Abiodun

The governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo
Abiodun, has disclosed that the state is irrevocably committed to ensuring that
it becomes the investment choice of the country and the world.

Governor Dapo Abiodun

Governor Abiodun made this known in Lagos on
Thursday at a programme organized by the London Stock Exchange in conjunction
with PwC Nigeria to launch a report “Companies to Inspire Africa
2019”.

According to a release signed by the Chief Press
Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Kunle Somorin, the governor said that his
government believed that no government has the “monopoly of funds”.

Abiodun explained that a consortium of banks and
other willing investors had approached the state for a chance to build the
largest Creative Arts and Entertainment village in the state and it was
obliged.

“We also appreciate the fact that no
government has the monopoly of funds to engender a wholesome and
sustainable development; we recognize that for the successful implementation of
building our future together agenda, which is our mantra, we have to
collaborate and partner with other stakeholders, especially the private
sector,” he said.

The governor also noted that the vision of his
administration was to give the state a focused and qualitative governance and
create an enabling environment for Public Private Sector Partnership, which he
said, would be fundamental to the creation of an enduring economic development
and individual prosperity of the state.

He further disclosed that his administration had
mapped out a practical approach to engender a public private partnership that
would enhance a symbiotic relationship between the government and the private
sector.

His administration, he noted, is irrevocably
committed to making the state an investment choice of destination not only in
Nigeria but in Africa.

Abiodun stated that his administration was also
committed to positively engaging unemployed youths in the state through the
launching of a job portal that would accommodate both the skilled and unskilled
youths, adding that the state was prepared to tackle the menace of
unemployment.

In attendance were captains of industry and
diplomats, including the deputy British High Commissioner, Harriet
Thompson, representative of Lagos State Governor, former Minister of
Investment, Trade & Industry, Okechuwu Enelama; Director
General, Security & Exchange Commission (SEC), Oscar Onyeama; and the
country senior partner, PwC Nigeria, Uyi Akpata among others.

The PwC helmsman noted that the expectations of
most people was that Ogun state gets transformed as the government in the state
was under the leadership of a proven private business entrepreneur who
had been able to transform his own private business.

” I told him that the expectation aligns that
we see Ogun State similarly transformed, aligned in the sense that it will just
be four folds beyond what you did in the private sector,” he said.

On the theme, “Companies to inspire Africa
programme, Akpata said that the programme was an opportunity to celebrate the
97 Nigerian companies featured in the 2019 edition of the Lagos launch, adding
that the edition would identify some of Africa’s most inspiring growth
businesses.

In his remarks, the Co- Head, Emerging Markets,
International Markets Unit, London Stock Exchange Group, Ibukun Adebayo, said
that the country was miles ahead of South Africa in terms of the number of
companies listed in the 2019 edition, noting that the country has 97 companies
registered as against the 23 registered by South Africa in the companies to
inspire Africa report.