By Olayemi Esan
The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN has declared that Ekiti State has put in place some measures that can guarantee a modern and thriving economy.
Prof. Osinbajo said this on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti at the Ekiti Investment and Economic Summit (Fountain Summit 2021) with the theme: “Investment Attractiveness and Economic Development: Lessons for Sub-nationals” organized by the state government.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Lolu Akande quoted Osinbajo saying, Ekiti ranked 4th in the area of “Dealing with Construction Permit” in the entire nation according to the last World Bank Doing Business sub-national survey on Nigeria released in 2018.
The Vice President also added that Ekiti ranked 18th overall out of the 36 states and the FCT in the inaugural edition of Nigeria’s own homegrown “Subnational Ease of Doing Business Baseline Survey as a business-friendly environment” state.
The survey, he said was commissioned to serve as a status report on the current attractiveness of business environments of states for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Osinbajo said Ekiti with its vast arable land for agriculture and its value, chains; a modern, strong and effective media and public communications system, together with the experience of Governor Kayode Fayemi in view of his excellent relationships with international donors and as a former minister put the State at a distinct advantage.
"So, the evidence is compelling and significantly, there is a commitment to a private sector-led economy, and this is important. Business is, if you’ll pardon the pun, the business of the private sector, governments should as much as possible facilitate, or at best, collaborate.
"An excellent example is the formerly State-owned, Ikun Dairy Farms at Ikun Ekiti, after 40 years of inactivity, the State Government divested 76% of its shareholding to a private dairy company, Promasidor, resulting in a company that is now producing over 80,000 litres of milk per month from a herd of just under 500 cows.
"There is also the recent concessioning of hospitality facilities such as the iconic Ikogosi Warm Springs affirming the same principle. This is a very important principle, the idea that it is the private sector that really should lead the economy,” he said.
Osinbajo added that most States in Nigeria have bigger GDPs than many other African Nations.
Ekiti State has a GDP of $2.8billion, 5 times the size of the GDP of the Nation of São Tomé.
"But it’s not just São Tomé, Ekiti’s GDP is higher than that of the nation of Gambia. Gambia has a GDP of $1.902billion, and also Cape Verde with a GDP of $1.704billion, or Seychelles, the lovely tourist destination Nation, with a GDP of $1.125billion. Ekiti’s GDP is about the same as the GDP of Liberia which is $2.95billion.
"The Nigerian sub-national (and we are talking about Ekiti, not even Lagos) is indeed a peculiar animal, even a relatively small State like Ekiti, small in terms of population in particular and even in allocation from federal revenue, has a bigger economy than many African nations,” he said.
Osinbajo explained that there is no question at all that Ekiti has established the foundations for a modern and thriving economy.
"The fundamentals are there; a modern, strong, consistently improving legal and Justice sector, with forward-looking laws, which include a contemporary administration of Civil Justice Law, a first-of-its-kind Sustainable Development Goals law, a Tourism and Hospitality law, Property Protection law,” he said.