Breaking News

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: OSUN STATE GOVERNMENT SET TO ESTABLISH MOBILE COURTS  | Governor Adeleke, Women Affairs Minister Strike Deals on Women Development | Osun: Environment Commissioner, Adejoorin Counsels Residents On Indiscriminate Dumping of Refuse | Birthday: Governor Adeleke Felicitates with Elerinmo of Erinmo | Governor Adeleke Approves Construction of Hajj Camp for Osun State | Governor Adeleke Approves Construction of Hajj Camp for Osun State | Fake News: Osun Government Sets up Action Committee On Cyber Crimes, Cyber Bullying | His Excellency Gov. Ademola Adeleke observed Iftar with Royal Fathers in Osun | For Ramadan /Easter Needs, Governor Adeleke Approves March Salaries, Pensions, Palliatives | Governor Adeleke Approves Promotions within Civil Service | Governor Adeleke Sets up Implementation Panel on the White Paper on Contract Review Committee | Courtesy visit by Minaret International University Foundation | It”s our collective interest for Mr President to succeed – Gov Adeleke | GOVERNOR ADELEKE CONGRATULATES NEW NACA DIRECTOR–GENERAL, DR. TEMITOPE ILORI | OSUN APC IS A LYING MACHINE- GOVERNOR ADELEKE DID NOT TAKE ANY LOAN | Governor Adeleke Salutes Barr Owolade at 70 | Governor Adeleke Opens Rehabilitated Government House, Says Upgrading State Assets is a Policy | Olubadan’s Exit: Gov Adeleke Commiserates with Gov Makinde, Ibadan people | The management of the Federal College of Education, Iwo paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Ademola Adeleke | The World Health Organization (WHO) team led by Prof. Ebun Adejuyigbe paid a courtesy visit to Governor Ademola Adeleke

Breaking News

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE: OSUN STATE GOVERNMENT SET TO ESTABLISH MOBILE COURTS  | Governor Adeleke, Women Affairs Minister Strike Deals on Women Development | Osun: Environment Commissioner, Adejoorin Counsels Residents On Indiscriminate Dumping of Refuse | Birthday: Governor Adeleke Felicitates with Elerinmo of Erinmo | Governor Adeleke Approves Construction of Hajj Camp for Osun State | Governor Adeleke Approves Construction of Hajj Camp for Osun State | Fake News: Osun Government Sets up Action Committee On Cyber Crimes, Cyber Bullying | His Excellency Gov. Ademola Adeleke observed Iftar with Royal Fathers in Osun | For Ramadan /Easter Needs, Governor Adeleke Approves March Salaries, Pensions, Palliatives | Governor Adeleke Approves Promotions within Civil Service | Governor Adeleke Sets up Implementation Panel on the White Paper on Contract Review Committee | Courtesy visit by Minaret International University Foundation | It”s our collective interest for Mr President to succeed – Gov Adeleke | GOVERNOR ADELEKE CONGRATULATES NEW NACA DIRECTOR–GENERAL, DR. TEMITOPE ILORI | OSUN APC IS A LYING MACHINE- GOVERNOR ADELEKE DID NOT TAKE ANY LOAN | Governor Adeleke Salutes Barr Owolade at 70 | Governor Adeleke Opens Rehabilitated Government House, Says Upgrading State Assets is a Policy | Olubadan’s Exit: Gov Adeleke Commiserates with Gov Makinde, Ibadan people | The management of the Federal College of Education, Iwo paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Ademola Adeleke | The World Health Organization (WHO) team led by Prof. Ebun Adejuyigbe paid a courtesy visit to Governor Ademola Adeleke
Osun Plans House-To-house Immunisation

Polio ImmunisationPreparations for a house-to-house Oral Polio Immunisation (OPI) for infants whose ages are between one day and five years have begun in Osun, an official has announced.
Dr Kayode Ogunniyi, the Director, Primary Health Care and Disease Control, Osun Ministry of Health, made this disclosure during an advocacy visit to religious leaders on Friday in Osogbo.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the immunisation is scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 1 and it will last for four days.
Ogunniyi said there was the need to sensitise religious leaders on the purpose of the exercise, with a view to boosting participation of their members in the exercise.
“I call on all nursing mothers, parents and wards to co-operate with the health workers so that they will benefit from the free services for the children,’’ he said.
The health official said the exercise was planned to eradicate polio disease from the state.
Responding, Rev. Niyi Ogundiya, the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and Alhaji Olayiwola Ajisafe, the Chief Imam of Osogbo, commended the state government  for providing quality health for the people.
(NAN)
 

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Photos from the Reception Party, organized by the Mandate Group in honour of Aregbesola after his conferment as Man of the Year, 2013 by Independent Newspapers Limited, Lagos on Saturday 22-02-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola displaying his 2013 Man of the Year Award; Governors, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti (right) and Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, after the conferment by Independent Newspapers Limited at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola displaying his 2013 Man
of the Year Award; Governors, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti (right) and
Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, after the conferment by Independent
Newspapers Limited at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014

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From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Wife of the Governor, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola and Member house of Representatives, Honourable Ayo Omidiran, during a Reception Party, organized by the Mandate Group in honour of Aregbesola after his conferment as Man of the Year, 2013 by Independent Newspapers Limited, Lagos on Saturday 22-02-2014

From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Wife
of the Governor, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola and Member house of
Representatives, Honourable Ayo Omidiran, during a Reception Party,
organized by the Mandate Group in honour of Aregbesola after his
conferment as Man of the Year, 2013 by Independent Newspapers Limited,
Lagos on Saturday 22-02-2014

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ManYear-2

ManYear-2It is a great honour to be the subject of today’s memorable gathering. I wish most sincerely to thank the Editorial Board and Management of Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) for freely finding me worthy of your Man-of-the-Year 2013 Award.
I commend you for standing with a vast majority of people who continue to express profound appreciation of the uncommon good governance through which I and my dependable team are re-engineering the socio-economic soul of the State of Osun, to the enthusiastic admiration of a vast majority of our people.
In instituting this award and remaining consistent with it, the Editorial Board of the INL demonstrates its commitment to promoting excellence and the virtues of hard work, dedication and achievement, particularly among political office holders.
Thus, in celebrating our ground-breaking feats in the different sectors of public life in Osun, you prove your utmost concern with the progress and development of our people. This affirms the sense in the view of eminent social thinker, Voltaire, that, ‘By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property’.
For me, this award is a notable gesture that will deepen my resolve and commitment to guarantee freedom and make life more abundant and meaningful to the ordinary people as a political leader. It will motivate me to be more devoted to the progress and development of humankind. It is in view of this that I accept the award wholly and whole-heartedly.
The award I am being honoured with today is in recognition of the verifiably unprecedented feats that we have achieved in the areas of human welfare promotion, education, job creation, and physical infrastructure development. It is only those, like you at INL, who were well familiar with the near total absence of governance in Osun prior to our coming to office that can properly appreciate the considerable changes that my administration has effected in all the sectors.
We took the reins of power when the state was suffering from the cancerous pains of huge and badly negotiated debts. It was a time when tensions arising from youth unemployment and political infractions reigned like mighty waves on turbulent oceans. All there was to governance then was mere form with insignificantly little substance.
But when we assumed office, we had clear understanding of what we would do about the substantial decay and ineffectiveness that had weakened the pillars of the state’s education sector. We knew that only firmly sustained and coordinated assaults on poverty, hunger, unemployment, and decrepit road infrastructure could restore the dignity of our people.
Thus, armed adequately with our viable blueprint – the Six-point Integral Action Plan, which aims at banishing hunger, poverty and unemployment, providing functional education, restoring healthy living and communal harmony – we frontally engaged the problems we inherited with a depth of empathy, a breath of ingenuity, and a keen sense of responsibility.
Thus, the malady of arrested development that made Osun unliveable in the past has received the cure of effective people-oriented policies and the therapy of uncommon responsible democratic governance.
Specifically, we have reformed and reorganised our public schools into Elementary, Middle, and High Schools for easy administration.
The pupils in each of the schools now get the attention which squares aptly with their educational needs. For instance, those in the Elementary School (Grades one to four) are given free protein-rich meals every school day in order to fortify their mental redoubts.
This programme covers 300,000 pupils and gulps N3.6 billion for its yearly sustenance. We have as a result of this programme recorded unusual increase in the enrolment figures of pupils. I’m sure it is no longer news to this distinguished gathering that Osun now has the highest primary school enrolment figures in the country.
The introduction of the computer tablet (Opon-Imo) to public school education in Osun is another marker of the innovation that our administration spearheaded. Indisputably, this is a world-beater in innovative e-learning. This ground-breaking innovation enables us to reduce the huge sum that goes into the purchase of textbooks.
Preloaded with different tutorial notes, past questions, and textbooks on 17 subjects that students register for in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), the National Examination Council (NECO), and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the device puts a permanent end to the worries of parents, teachers and students with regard to the unavailability of requisite learning materials. Our administration has so far committed N1.2 billion into this project. Several thousands of units of this device have already been distributed to teachers and students in our public secondary schools; our target is for all the 150,000 students in the high schools to each have one unit of the device.
I am happy to inform this gathering that today in Ilesa, there is now a factory that will see to the production of Opon-Imo, as well as mobile phones, plasma television and computers. This, in addition, will also create more jobs for the wellbeing of the youths of the state.
New modern, standard school buildings are also springing up in different local governments within the state. While some have been completed and are already in use, many more are at advanced stages of completion. Through the School Infrastructure Development Programme, we are changing the physical infrastructure of learning.
Thus far we have expended the sum of N14.8 billion on the construction of school buildings under the O’School programme. The total capital expenditure we have disbursed thus far on schools in the last three years is N31.31 billion. This underlines the importance we place on the education of our youths. The recurrent expenditure on education translates to an average expenditure of N84,000 and N30,000 on each elementary and secondary pupils and students respectively.
The change of school uniforms and the free distribution of 750,000 pieces of new uniforms are vivid demonstration of how important the physical appearance of our students is to us. The education sector in Osun has and is still benefitting from massive funding and provision of essential facilities for the attainment of greater value. Education remains the bedrock of the functional development being enjoyed in the state. Through it, we are innovatively shaping the future of the citizens.
Under our watch, road infrastructure development in the state is being recorded on an unprecedented scale. Through uncommon financial engineering, we are rehabilitating and constructing roads across the cities and towns in the state. These roads are not selected whimsically. They are the ones, including federal roads, that impact most on the economic and social life of the people. If we magnify the fact of our meagre federal allocation and income, we will never venture near the massive road projects we have on our hands. Our prudence and creativity in the disbursement of resources do it for us.
I dare say, with all sense of modesty, that the State Government of Osun does not depend alone on federal allocation to fulfil its statutory responsibilities. With sound innovations and plugging of leaking ends, we have been able to increase our Internally Generated Revenue from the N300 million we inherited to N1.6 billion monthly.
In job creation, our record is noteworthy. Through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES), we have drastically scaled down the high incidence of youth unemployment. This has reduced social tensions in the state. We are creating the right socio-economic environment to enable our active adults earn their sustenance.
And through the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (O’REAP), we are translating agriculture from subsistence level to commercial scale. Farmers in Osun now have what it takes to do serious agricultural business. We have opened up the rural areas and new roads are being constructed for easy transportation of farm produce to the urban markets. We have thus, through agriculture, been able to create wealth and provide jobs for our people.
So real and impactful are the delivery of our policies and programmes that there is no citizen in the state that does not feel the direct impact of our responsible governance in one way or the other. The reason is simply that the citizens are genuinely the focus of all our developmental efforts.
For us, the development of human capacity and their wellbeing is the main responsibility of government. All development efforts must necessarily add value to the life of the majority of the people. That is what our policies on welfare support for the critically vulnerable elderly citizens, health, education, security, agriculture, tourism, job creation, and infrastructural development have done to the greater majority of our people.
In more concrete and realistic ways, our administration has demonstrated that government exists to protect life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; to provide an environment for commerce to thrive, for the young and economically deprived to be educated, for the sick who cannot afford sound healthcare to be taken care of, for the provision of security for all, and for the enforcement of the rule of law and maintenance of law and order.
Let me assure all that the good works we are doing in Osun will not stop. We are determined to give our best for the happiness of our people.
It is noteworthy that INL considers us worthy of this award because we ‘offered an alternative perspective to governance’. This, to us, is the highest attraction of this award. It was Albert Einstein that described insanity as doing the same thing, the same way, all the time, and expecting a different result. Many of the problems of development besetting us as a people arose because too many people in leadership positions, regrettably, cannot think outside the box. Yet, doing things differently will surely exact a price.
This price, for us, has been huge and enormous, but not unaffordable, if we consider the end result. The first is that we have been misunderstood (sometimes deliberately) and unfairly maligned. Many surely dwelled on non-issues and falsehood and mischievously projected them as the marquis achievements of our administration. Sometimes our people marvel at these insidious reports, wondering if they were concocted from another planet, since they are strange and contrary to the good governance and revolution going on around them.
Some of our critics went to the diabolical extent of inciting religious partisans against each other and against the government. They do not care a hoot that they are instigating religious crisis which conflagration and consequences are unimaginable.
Nevertheless, this award has put a lie to their evil machinations. I am glad that the path we are threading and the efforts we are making are not unnoticed by this perceptive media organisation. With this, you are also offering a fresh perspective to governance evaluation and appreciation in the country. It is a demonstration of your objectivity, intellectualism and unparallel public service that have also won you the newspaper of the year award in the past. I have no doubt that you can only keep going up.
Let me, once again, thank INL (for the honour and basis of the award), my amazing team that made our achievements possible, the good people of Osun who through their enthusiastic support inspire and encourage us, our friends all over the nation, particularly Lagos, and every person of goodwill that have unshaken faith in us and supported us through thick and thin.
I thank you all for your kind attention.

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Baptist-1-

Baptist-1-The parents and guardians in the State of Osun have been charged on the need for them to institute discipline in their children and wards by giving them the right counseling.
Comrade Abiodun Agboola, the Coordinator of an Osun State based Civil Right Organization, the People’s Welfare League made the call in a press release made available to Bioreports in Osogbo on Wednesday.
Agboola who expressed worry about the incessant misconduct of the school students in the state noted that proper attention must be given to the activities of the students so that they do not become the devil advocate.
He urged the parents and guardians to reciprocate intervention of Governor Rauf Aregbesola through the education reform by ensuring that their children and wards conduct themselves peacefully and orderly in their various schools.
Agboola stated that the construction of model schools, the provision of teaching materials, payments of WAEC examination, purchase of school buses to convey the students and good welfare package for the teachers by Aregbesola administration should be commended and reciprocated with good behavior not only by the students but by parents as well.
While lamenting that the students were being used to forment trouble in the school by individual group, the Coordinator urged the security agencies in the state to investigate the indiscipline and gangsterism among the students.
According to him, the growing public misconduct among the students is fast becoming a threat to the peace of the state, charging the security agencies to unravel the clashes in some of the High Schools in the state.
He noted that, it would not be out of place to say that the violence among the school students might be ordinary rivalry between the students after the school merger.
Agboola further explained that stiffer punishment should be meted out to any student caught causing trouble in the school while their sponsor should be prosecuted accordingly.
He maintained that restructuring and classification of the public schools by the state government should not be the basis of chaos but rather promote excellence in the school system.
The coordinator argued that the students might have become instruments of anarchy in the hands of unscrupulous politicians that are bitter with the uninterrupted peaceful atmosphere of the state.
He therefore urged the students to not allow themselves to be used as a machinery of violence by some of the unscrupulous politicians who think they can gain access to the government through violence.
 BIOREPORTS

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SONY DSC

SONY DSCThe Executive Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was a guest speaker at the presentation of the “Milk of Knowledge” to the pupils’ of Elementary schools across the state, organized by Sherifat Care Foundation (SCARF), a pet project of Her Excellency, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, on 20th February, 2014 at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo.
He stated his commitment in making sure that pupil at public school across the state get desire nutritional meal, which was the intention of his administration O’Meal initiative. He said this has reduced out of school children in every crannies of the state and aftermath result of brain alertness and nutritional value to increase their productivity .
Ogbeni revealed that in order to boost the government’s O’Meal programme, his administration has employed more than 3,000 women who were saddled with the responsibility of preparing the pupil’s meal. And this has been testified to by National Bureau of Statistics that Osun is number one among the state of federation that unemployment figure has reduced significantly.
Speaking further, Aregbesola revealed that all those employed were selected regardless of their political or religious affiliations but based on their educational qualifications.
The governor also hinted that his government had committed huge amounts of money into education in the state for the benefit of all indigene of Osun. He said that the schools in the state are not for Muslims or for Christians, neither are they for adherents of any other religion. They are for all children of Osun, regardless of their circumstances of birth because these are the leaders of tomorrow.
He noted that his administration per capital spending on each elementary pupil is atN84,000 annually, which includes feeding, free fees and uniform among others.
He explained that it was in the best interest of the pupils’ for this type of laudable programme to be instituted but lamented that the Federal Government has been starving the state of monthly allocation.
He blamed the Federal Government for the shortfall in the oil revenue, which has affected what is accruing to the state government. He further berated the FG on the suspension of CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido for exposing the tsunami of corruption at the NNPC.
Aregbesola called on corporate organizations and well-meaning Nigerians to support the positive initiative of the SCARF so as not to allow the “Milk for Knowledge” programme to die.
On the similarity in school uniform, he said the government policy on that project is for the good of the pupils’ and does not have any Islamisation correlation. He said the opposition who are paddling this unholy rumour are only being economic with the truth, because this has increase the revenue based of the state with the Sam & Sarah Garment Industry in the state.
He said they have failed in their bit to cause confusion amongst the schools just to discredit his administration, but promise that the government will relent in service delivery to the people of the state.
Aregbesola revealed that Sam and Sara had employed more than 3,000 of the state’s youths in their garment factory adding that the issue of school uniform had nothing to do with religion.
He further explained that since government has taken over the public schools, it has every right to change the school uniforms as done in some advanced countries such as Benin republic, Indonesia, United Kingdom.
On the issue of school identities, he revealed that a smart identity card would soon be made available which would contain all the bio-data of each pupils.
He admonished all parents to disregard lies from the camp of the opposition parties as government was only interested in the well-being and future of the children as leaders of the tomorrow.
 BIOREPORTS

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Man20Year-3

Man20Year-3Constitutional lawyer,  Prof.  Itse Sagay, stressed  yesterday that  the entrenchment of true federalism in Nigeria is now inevitable.
He said the arrangement  would allow the  regions or zones to  be in control of their resources, thereby  promoting efficient development.
Prof. Sagay spoke at a lecture entitled   Nigeria: 1914 to 2014; Amalgamation and its Aftermath organised by  the Daily Independent  in honour of  Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola,  who received the  newspaper’s Man of the Year 2013 award.
The renown lawyer said that  under the regional government  in the First Republic,  Nigeria made remarkable progress with the three and later four regions using the resources at their disposal to make life meaningful for the citizens.
Prof Sagay expressed worry that the struggle for power at the centre has assumed a dangerous dimension.
He said: “When we hear statement from organisations like the Northern Elders Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum making demand that power must return to the North and the answer from the South-South that  their son has a constitutional right to a second term, you immediately realise that is all about the national question.”
He maintained that it is imperative for the country to discuss how its component parts  would live together because the colonial arrangement that foisted the Nigerian nation is still saddled with challenges which  favour one part of the country against the other.
Also speaking, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the National Conference, Mr. Tony Uranta said everything about Nigeria is all about struggle for power.
“Nobody is talking about the people, nobody is talking about citizenship. The country has been limited to the issues of ethnicity, it is fanning the ember of religion and you begin to wonder whether this is the dream of our founding fathers,” he said.
Governor Aregbesola described  the award as  an encouragement  for him to do more for the people of Osun State and  thanked the newspaper for considering him worthy of the honour.
The chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, said Aregbesola was considered for the award for his candid economic policy which has transformed the state from a consuming economy to a production economy.
THE NATION

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ManYear-2

Photos from the Investiture of Aregbesola as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014

From left, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulure; Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his Wife Sherifat; Chairman of the occasion/Chairman, Independent Newspaper Limited (INL), Alhaji Gambo Lawan; Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, during the Investiture of Aregbesola as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014 Man of the Year-3

From left, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulure; Deputy
Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola; his Wife Sherifat; Chairman of the occasion/Chairman,
Independent Newspaper Limited (INL), Alhaji Gambo Lawan; Kayode Fayemi
of Ekiti State and Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, during the
Investiture of Aregbesola as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel
and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014
Man of the Year-3

From left, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulure; Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his Wife Sherifat; Chairman of the occasion/Chairman, Independent Newspaper Limited (INL), Alhaji Gambo Lawan; Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, during the Investiture of Aregbesola as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014 Man of the Year-3

From left, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulure; Deputy
Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola; his Wife Sherifat; Chairman of the occasion/Chairman,
Independent Newspaper Limited (INL), Alhaji Gambo Lawan; Kayode Fayemi
of Ekiti State and Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, during the
Investiture of Aregbesola as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel
and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014
Man of the Year-3

From left, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Gambo Lawan and Managing Director, Independent Newspaper Limited (INL), Mr Ted Iwere, during the Governor's Investiture as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014

From left, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Chairman of
the occasion, Alhaji Gambo Lawan and Managing Director, Independent
Newspaper Limited (INL), Mr Ted Iwere, during the Governor’s
Investiture as the 2013 Man of the Year, at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on Friday 21-02-2014

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OSSG Youth Recruitment Endeavour Is Uncommon

The on-going massive recruitment into the various sectors of the civil service in the State of Osun is unprecedented in the history of the state as it is also uncommon in any State of the Federation.

Head of Service in the State of Osun, Mr. Olayinka Owoeye made this statement today while declaring open a two day orientation workshop organized for the newly recruited junior staff in the Bureau of Public Service Pension.

Speaking on behalf of the Head of Service, the Director Public Service Pension, Pastor Yemi Oyeleye disclosed that there is hardly any agency of government in the state where new officers had not been recruited.

This, according to him, is one of the numerous ways by which Governor Aregbesola’s agendum of banishing unemployment among the youth is being maximally fulfilled.

The Head of Service then charged the new officers to take advantage of the orientation workshop to imbibe the civil service culture of discipline, honesty and commitment without which, he warned they cannot go far in the service.

He however counselled those with higher qualification not to be discouraged in giving their best, assuring them with the right kind of orientation and attitude to their duties, their steady progress is guaranteed.

Among the lectures to be delivered at the workshop are: Ethics of the Civil Service, Registry Management as well as functions of the Bureau of Public Service Pension vis-à-vis the old and new pension schemes.
OSUNNEWS

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Osun To Disburse N600m To Women Entrepreneurs

Osun State government is to disburse a total of N600 million to women entrepreneurs in the state.
This is coming as no fewer than 200,000 people would benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N2 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) in the state.
The state government is to add its counterpart fund of N2 billion, expected to increase the beneficiaries to 400,000.
Speaking at a day sensitisation workshop on the N220 billion MSMEDF fund organised by the Osun State branch of the CBN for stakeholders in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the state government will in the next few weeks begin the disbursement of the N600 million to empower the women of the state.
The governor, who was represented by Wale Bolorunduro, commissioner for finance, at the workshop, said the government had worked out modalities with microfinance banks to disburse the loans to the beneficiaries.
The governor, who urged the people, especially women of the state to maximise the opportunity of the CBN loans, described women as a major factor in the economy development of the state.
While promising that the state was ready to maximise the apex bank loan for development of the state and its citizenry, he stated that the state government would provide its counterpart fund very soon, saying the state government would provide bank guarantee for the co-operatives in the state that show interest to access the fund.
Speaking further on the economy policy of the state government, Aregbesola stated that when the present administration came on board in November 2010, the gross domestic product (GDP) was N5 billion, which it had increased into over N9 billion in year 2013, and condemned critics of his government.
He pointed out that, according to the Federal Government data on GDP, the state was in number seven out of 36 states of the federation now, adding that the opposition parties in the state lacked knowledge about the economic development of the state.
However, as part of its economic drive, the state is to commission the multi-million naira Osogbo Ayegbaju International Market soon for usage of the traders across the state.
In his address at the workshop, Macduff Okorode Efetabore, the CBN controller in Osun State, disclosed the reason why the apex bank initiated the MSMEDF fund, saying was to develop the economy status of the over two million Nigeria citizens, particularly the 60 percent of women entrepreneurs, within the period of 10 years.
Effetabore maintained that “the MSMED fund has two broad objectives which are social and commercial. The social/development fund shall constitute 10 percent, with grants 5 percent, interest drawback 3 percent, managing agents’ operation cost 2 percent. The commercial fund shall constitute 90 percent of the fund as follows: Wholesale funding – 90 percent of the commercial component and guarantees/refinancing – 10 percent of the commercial component.
“Considering the peculiar challenges faced by women in accessing financial services in Nigeria, the revised micro-finance policy, regulatory and supervisory framework in section 4.2(1V), provides that women’s access to financial services should increase by 15 percent annually in order to eliminate gender disparity.
“In order to achieve this, 60 percent, which is N132 billion of the fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women.
“In operating the fund, special consideration shall also be given to institutions that will provide financial services to graduates of the CBN’s Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs).”
BUSINESSDAY

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