Ekiti State Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun has assured residents of the State of significant improvement in their quality of lives given the commitment of Governor Oyebanji administration to the provision of conducive environment for the people to thrive and its family-friendly policies.
Rt. Hon. Olatunbosun who gave the assurance while featuring on a current affairs programme, ‘Bottom Line’ on Cruse FM, Ikere Ekiti, however stressed the need to not only support the efforts of Government to make life more meaningful for the people but also key into the myriad of opportunities facilitated by Government to make themselves self-sufficient.
Acknowledging that times are indeed tight due to factors including global economic downturn, low oil prices, impact of the fuel subsidy removal, high unemployment rates, inflation amongst others, Olatunbosun said that the State Government proactively activated short, medium and long term measures to battle the challenges, stressing that the focus had always been to ensure the general wellbeing of the people.
The Government Spokesman highlighted the short term measures to include the different phases of palliatives rolled out by the Oyebanji administration, adding that the relief programmes were carefully designed to ease the economic challenges of the people.
He listed the palliatives to include the State’s 12 billion naira economic relief programme that was unveiled in February which cut across all strata of the populace, N250 million as palliatives for 10,000 households for five months, several phases of distribution of grains including bags of rice and maize to residents amongst others.
Olatunbosun said “we are not just starting now, a lot of things have been put in place before now and we are equally adding a lot of other programmes. Things are tight, we know. Government is very much aware of that and the compassionate Governor we have is always talking about this which is why we have the short term measure, the medium and long term measures.
“Some few months ago, the governor rolled out over 12billion Naira economic palliatives which cut across all strata of life, all segments of the society to benefit, part of which we are still consolidating on in terms of food production”.
Stressing the commitment of the administration to food security, provision of employment opportunities, industrialization and commerce, the Commissioner said the State Government had cleared large expanses of land for farming and generally encouraging residents, particularly the youths, to engage in farming.
According to him, the State is revolutionising agriculture and moving the people from mere subsistent farming to commercial farming and real agribusiness, adding that apart from massive land clearing at many locations across the State to facilitate cluster farming, Government is providing 50 percent subsidized tractorization for ploughing and harrowing as part of efforts to boost food production, grow the economy and create jobs for the youths.
Olatunbosun said that over 400 youths that benefited in a training programme facilitated by the State Government in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) have been given high yielding seedlings to farm in various locations across the State including Oke-Ako, Ayede and Gbede where large expanse of land had already been cleared for them, while the successful broiler project at Erifun in Ado Ekiti will soon be expanded to Ikere and Ikole.
He assured that Government has in addition facilitated markets for yields from the farms to prevent wastages and ensure sustenance, saying that the administration is doing everything to boost food production in the State.
Stressing that the administration’s interventions are not limited to agribusiness, Olatunbosun described the recent visit of Vice President Kashim Shettima to the State as a manifestation of the efforts of Governor Oyebanji to transform the State to an investors’ destination.
Olatunbosun assured that the administration would continue to partner the Federal Government as well as interested well to do individuals and corporate organizations in the quest to boost economic activities in the State.
He said that the clinics would be of major benefit to micro, small and medium scale entrepreneurs adding that the Governor had also set up a high-powered committee to oversee the Garment hub and the proposed ICT hub to ensure sustainability.
Assuring that the administration would continue to work assiduously towards improving the lots of the people, Olatunbosun solicited the continue support of all stakeholders towards achieving the desired goals, adding that optimum success must be seen as a collective responsibility.