Aregbesola Woos Manufacturers To Osun

CITING favourable business climate and vast opportunities, Osun State Government has called on foreign and local investors to site industrial plants in the state.
The State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who made this appeal while delivering his goodwill message at the Summit on Industrialisation of Ijesaland organized by Ijesaland Development Foundation held in Lagos yesterday said his government has consciously and deliberately put in place favourable investment and partnership opportunities in the state, which private investors could take advantage of.
Aregbesola said the state government has deliberately ensured timely processing of Certificate of Occupancy for interested business concerns, while it had established the Office of Economic Development and Partnerships (OEDP), a one-stop shop that facilitates trade and investment and helps to cut the red tapes in partnerships for investment in Osun.
According to the governor, Osogbo, the state capital is home to the National Distribution Centre of the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and therefore has one of the relatively most stable power supply situations in Nigeria, which is attractive for business to thrive.
To ensure easy ferrying or transportation of manufactured, finished or raw products, Aregbesola said the
state hosts the South- North rail line that links the southwest region to the central and northern parts of the country.

Delivering a paper on the Summit on Industrialization of Ijesaland, an interactive programme for Ijesa and non-Ijesa investors for the exploration of opportunity for industrialization in Ijesaland, Professor Ayo Fatubarin, highlighted the immense agricultural potentials of the area.

Fatubarin called upon the foundation to work towards ensuring that small and medium scale industries were set up in all the nooks and crannies of Ijesaland to boost the economy and provide job opportunities for the teeming youth population.
Such industries including gari, soap, yam flour, oil palm, chalk and several others.
President of the Foundation, Engineer Dideolu Falobi, in his address, said: “Our vision in IDF is ‘Transformation of Ijesaland into a modern industrialized community with high quality of social, economic, medical and scholarly life, medical and scholarly life, co-existing in peace, unity and love with other people of Osun state.”
Falobi said the foundation intended to do this by harnessing the diverse human, economic and natural resources available within and outside Ijesaland towards sustainable development of the area.
He added that the IDF was a child of circumstances that came into being to provide a structured platform for driving the development of Ijesaland.
THE GUARDIAN