adminThe governor of Ogun state, Dapo Abiodun has said that his administration has delivered more housing units in its first four years in office than all of his predecessors combined.
Abiodun stated this on Friday in Abuja while advocating for a collaboration between the State and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in crucial areas like housing, energy transition, information and communication technology, women’s empowerment, job development, and employment.
Speaking to the UNDP country representative in Nigeria, Mohamed Yahya , the governor stressed that those sectors were the main emphasis of his government under his ISEYA Developmental Pillars.
Reeling out his accomplishments of the Women Empowerment programmes, which made significant progress in reducing poverty through small-scale lending, the installation of over 5,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable to provide high-speed internet access throughout the state, the introduction of the job portal which aimed to link employers and prospective workers, garnering over 150,000 registrations in its first week of operation, the building of the Gateway Agro-Cargo Airport with the longest runaway in Nigeria (4KM) in record time and the planned investment of over $400m for a planned special agric processing zone (SAPZ) in the adjourning land area to the airport to name a few.
The governor also mentioned that in keeping with its energy transition plan and climate change goal, the administration just debuted mass transit buses powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) on Monday. EV2 and three-wheelers will be introduced soon.
Abiodun informed the team that going forward, his administration would look to work with the UNDP to continue achieving its objectives.
“Specifically, the meeting agreed on several areas of support between the State and the UNDP, including but not limited to the joint development of baseline data and study for specific sectors in the state, including for the poor and vulnerable towards the aim of the State Government in bridging the gap to meet SDG goals, potential collaborations in arts and creative economy, expansion of the Ogun State for Women Project, Climate Change and exploration of carbon markets, provision of TVET training, empowerment through mini grids power solutions and participation in UNDPโs Jubliee program through the stateโs Ogun Teach Initiative and sustainable housing projects among others,” the governor said.
The UNDP Representative earlier in his statement enumerated the organization’s goals, which included reducing poverty, putting the SDGs into practise, strengthening democratic governance, and assessing its results.
According to Yahya, the UNDP is sponsoring a Jubilee Programme that would place 20,000 Nigerians in the public and commercial sectors and cover their salaries for a year.
He claims that 4,000 placements have been made thus far out of the 5,000 organisations that have signed up to take part in the scheme.
Yahya added the UNDP is also engaged in other activities throughout the nation, like building innovation spaces in tertiary institutions to promote innovation, energy transition with an emphasis on carbon sinks, tourism, and collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation to support startups and develop the tech eco-system.
