Obaseki Earmarks N7bn As 2019 Budget

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said he would budget N7.007bn for 2019 to help drive the activities of investors.

Obaseki said this on Wednesday during the presentation of the state’s 2019 budget proposal before a session of the Edo State House of Assembly, in Benin City.

According to him: “Our efforts at expanding the state’s economic base will receive a major boost this year as we plan to spend N7.007 billion on investment promotion, which will help bring to fruition a number of our investment initiatives.”

In addition, he said that “Through this, we intend to provide a guarantee for investments from the private sector, match funding for projects and provide the right environment for investors to come on board.”

Obaseki said, “Our big-ticket projects, including the Benin Industrial Park, the Benin River Port and Edo Modular Refinery Project, are well on course.

“Three billion naira (N3 billion) has been set aside as the contribution of the state as initial investment commitment for the Benin Industrial Park, the necessary preliminary works are ongoing and in no distant time, the first set of companies will set up shops to provide jobs and services in the state.”

Also, he noted that “one of the priority areas in the proposed 2019 capital expenditure framework is to strengthen internal capacity for project execution and governance with a view to achieving 80 per cent closure rate on all ongoing projects.”