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Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin
Kwara State has established a Ministry of Enterprise as part of strategy to grow businesses, encourage creativity, create jobs and widen revenue generation base.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who announced the creation of the ministry said the culture of waiting for monthly allocation from Abuja is neither sustainable nor pro-development.
“The fact that salaries consume the larger chunk of our income slows down our development by limiting what we put in capital projects like schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. But the way to go is this,” AbdulRazaq said in justifying the new ministry.
He stated this late Monday during a tour of the multi-billion dollar KAM Holding’s factory In Ilorin.
“Enterprise, through the private sector efforts like what KAM Holding is doing is what we need to grow our society and increase our GDP and standard of living. This is our focus, and it is the reason we changed the Ministry of Commerce and related ones to Ministry of Enterprise. That is our future. If we can do this properly then we will turn this state around.”
AbdulRazaq commended KAM Holding’s proprietor, Kamoru Yusuf, for investing in the state and said government would support him to do more.
“We will want others to emulate you. Only a patriotic citizen would do what you have done for our state and Nigeria. Everywhere we go we would talk about you because you have been a great ambassador of our state,” the governor said.
Yusuf, commended Governor AbdulRazaq for the visit which he said was a morale booster for him and staff.
“Your visit will drive us to do more for our country. Without the heart of sacrifice it is not easy to be an industrialist in Nigeria because of issues around the manufacturing sector.
“We thank God that with over 30 years in this business, we have no cause to regret investing in Kwara . It is a state of harmony, we have lovely people around and we are contributing to the economy of the state. There is no where in the world today that they are doing steel manufacturing and they will not have one or two things to do with KAM. With KAM Holding, Kwara should not be referred to as a civil service state,” he said.
