OGUN STRENGTHENS TIES WITH FOREIGN AGENCIES FOR IMPROVED DEVELOPMENT

OGUN STRENGTHENS TIES WITH FOREIGN AGENCIES FOR IMPROVED DEVELOPMENT

          The Ogun State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Otunba Bimbo Ashiru has expressed government readiness to strengthen partnership with international Development organizations to improve socio-economic development of the State.

          Ashiru stated this at a meeting with representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) led by Engr. Issac Olugbenga Adegun in Oke-mosan, Abeokuta.

          According to him, the intervention of the agency in trade and investment with focus on Agriculture was in tandem with the State Government’s Rebuilding Mission.

          Speaking on the agency’s effort at reducing time and cost of transportation of goods along Lagos, Kano and Jibiya trade corridors, the Commissioner emphasised the need for haulage operations to ensure that their drivers were properly trained before engaging them, saying it would also help in reducing the rate of accident on the roads.

          Ashiru said the State government had been encouraging industrial clusters among  firms operating in the State to enable them have easy access to raw materials and to reduce cost for a mutual beneficial relationship between them and the State.

          Earlier, Engr. Adegun explained that the project of the agency which commenced in October 2012 as an intervention plan was expected to end in 2016, pointing out that it would be extended for another one year in order to consolidate on its impact and to cover more grounds.

          He said the project, a trade and investment facilitation intervention was aimed at diversifying the economic base of the nation with focus on Agriculture and its value chain.

          ‘’We want to see how we can facilitate private sector’s participation in these trade corridors in a bid to reduce time and cost of transmitting goods and services across these corridors’’, Adegun said.