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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki on Tuesday listed key areas of investments undertaken by his administration as part of moves to fast track development in the state.
He said his administration is taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic era to leapfrog development in the state, explaining that investment opportunities and job creation are key in addressing a large population of young people who are under pressure on them to want to migrate to countries outside of Nigeria.
Governor Obaseki said this in his presentation at the annual Smart City Mayors’ Summit taking place in Taipei, Taiwan.
The theme of the summit is how cities are leading the digital transformation of industries by building digital infrastructure.
According to the governor, who joined the high profile global event virtually, ‘COVID-19 pandemic taught us that we are on our own, so our story is one of taking opportunities of the era to build our infrastructure.’
He told participants at the global event that as part of his administration’s concerted policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, health sector reforms have been prioritised in the state.
‘For us, COVID-19 has taught us that it’s going to be difficult going outside of our country to seek medical care, so we have designed our own medical district and we expect that with the investment and partnership to build our health care system internally, we will be able to withstand the challenges of future pandemics.
‘The lesson of covid-19 for us with the lockdown is that we must do all we can to build our cities, build our states, build our infrastructure and therefore in the next five years or half a decade, the emphasis by my state government is to source investments, institutionalise the use of technology in our governance process, in our education system and also in our health care system,’ the governor said.
He explained that ‘Benin City has about 2,000 square kilometres of land and our aspiration is to first plan our cities, take advantage of the post-covid-19 period to build infrastructure.
‘We see this as an opportunity to leapfrog using technology in building our infrastructure and human capacity. We have a project, a 30-year urban and regional development project which hopefully will utilise technology in redefining our space and our people.’
Governor Obaseki was the only African leader invited to the summit which had innovative city leaders from France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Taiwan, amongst others.
The summit is a global platform for mayors and city leaders from around the world, who are usually invited to share their experiences in modernising their infrastructure using digital technology and ultimately transforming their societies into smart cities.
The Edo governor also highlighted his administration’s achievements and insights on the Benin Enterprise project, the art pavilion that will host prized artefacts being returned from Europe and elsewhere.
