By NEFISHETU YAKUBU

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Friday set an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) target of N60 billion for 2023 fiscal year in the state.

Obaseki disclosed this during sixth edition of the yearly Alaghodaro Investment Summit in Benin.

The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that the summit is organised yearly to mark the anniversary of Obaseki in office and showcase the progress being recorded in transforming the state.

The theme of the event was “Edo’s Transformation: Partnerships, Resilience, and Impact”.

He noted that the increment would come from exploring opportunities in culture, forestry, manufacturing, agriculture and technology to drive development.

“In the last six years, things have not been easy, but we have tried in our own little way. You can see that from 2016 when we got in, we tried to increase Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

“Except for the COVID-19 year, we sustained an increase in our IGR and we hope to end next year with over N60 billion IGR.

“We see growth ahead of us and this growth is going to come from certain endowments that we have which most people do not have.

“Our culture, people must come and see us and admire what our forbearers built and our forestry assets, the world are talking about net zero carbon and we have something to contribute to the environment and environmental economy.

“Manufacturing is the way to go. Edo has the largest onshore gas reserve in Nigeria with most of our gas are in the swamps and the offshore.

“With that energy source, there’s no reason we cannot generate enough energy to attract investors to drive industrialisation.

“Agriculture, that’s what we grew up with. Of our 19 million square km of land, there’s practically no way we cannot grow something.

”For us, the future is technology, because the world is talking about technology and that is the new area of focus,” Obaseki said.

The governor therefore, emphasised on the need for Nigeria to move the economy from consumption to production.

According to him, in spite of all the challenges that are faced as a country, Nigeria has over 200 million people who are going to be 450 million in 2050 and will not stop consuming.

Asue Ighodalo, Chairman of the board of Alaghodaro Limited, in his welcome address, said the summit would present opportunities for key stakeholders and the private sectors to determine how to navigate the challenges facing the nation’s economy. (NAN)

Update news