The Deputy Governor of Edo State Comrade Philip
Shaibu has revealed steps that were taken to move the State from a Civil
Service State into an economic hub.
Comrade
Shaibu who spoke through his Special Assistant on media, Mr. Benjamin
Atu, said Governor Godwin Obaseki adopted a hybrid strategy to tackle
the hitherto ingrained inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the commerce
and industry sector for maximum results.
“The
truth is that a lot is happening in Edo State that the World is not
aware of. What Governor Godwin Obaseki is doing is mind blowing”
According
to the Deputy Governor, Government in the last three and half years by
virtue of dedicated focus, came to the realization that commerce and
industry offer very important measurement and gauge for assessment of
the economic growth, strength and health of any society.
He
maintained that the Government was worried about the crushing poverty
in the State and conceived and embarked upon the micro credit program as
part of efforts in bringing the issue of poverty reduction to the
forefront of administration.
“The objective of
the Obaseki’s government is to achieve the happiness, economic
enhancement and independence of the poorest, the weakest, the most
vulnerable and disadvantaged”
Benjamin
Atu disclosed that micro-credit can be used to benefit poor
entrepreneurs as a major fillip in removing people from the poverty
line. This the government has proven by various forms of Micro credit
program to bring about their own sustained development.
“We
want the poor in our midst to have access to means of production, turn
them into entrepreneurs in their own right, employers of labour and
masters of their own economic destiny, with the ability to turn the
economic fortune of the State around for the better.
He
maintained that, Its in furtherance of this goal that the Governor is
seeking a second term in office in order to consolidate on his micro
credit effort. The return of Governor Godwin Obaseki will be for the
greater good of Edo People.
“Businesses that started as a very small basic micro businesses have started turning into cottage industries and small businesses. Since the Government has this kind of ingenuity and resilience towards ensuring the eradication of poverty why then are we struggling for a change of government” Atu asked.
The Media
Aide holds that It’s good ingenuity for the Edo State government. If we
can continue with this for the next four years we will promote
employment for both the skilled and unskilled and thereby reduce crime
in the State and above all the state economy will grow.
Micro
credit is grounded in the believe that the poor have skills that remain
largely unused or underutilized and that charity is not the answer
because it creates dependency and therefore perpetuate the poverty
trap.
The Statement further
alerted that “Obaseki’s administration has penetrated into the grassroot
through meeting financial obligations of businesses. This he has done
because, regular financial institutions owing to their nature cannot put
down funds for low income business.
In the
absence of alternative funds for this group of people, the Obaseki
government took it as a social responsibility and obligation, to
provide them with necessary credit as we cannot continue to neglect
them, considering the fact that they are in the Majority.
He
emphasised that, one of the major achievement of this poverty
alleviation program is that it was carefully packages to meet the desire
of the people at the grass-root, people who have never experienced
direct benefit from government in any form.
Is
it such a passionate Government like this, that we are in a hurry to
remove? We may fault actions of the government for not enriching
individual elite who are bent on auctioning the State, but the
government has impacted upon the lives of those who needed government
the most through policies and program.