By Nosakhare Agbonigiarhuoyi
The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on Thursday, February 2, 2023, received the draft policy and report from the committee on Science, Technology, and Innovation at the Government House, Benin City.
The committee, headed by Prof. Kessington Obahiagbon, was inaugurated on November 23, 2021, with the mandate to draft a policy on Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) to make Edo State the STI hub of Africa.
Receiving the report, Mr Obaseki commended the Committee for its effort, describing the draft policy as “ground-breaking work” which will accelerate Edo’s ambition to drive STI in Africa.
The Governor noted that Edo is already leading the country in STI, ion the education and healthcare sectors, emphasizing the need for the policy document to consolidate the gains made and propel Edo State forward.
“We have also realized that our educational policy has to be retooled and realigned to emphasize science and technology, and that is currently going on as we are transforming EdoBEST to EdoBEST 2.0.” he said.
On the next steps after receiving the report, Mr Obaseki highlighted the need for a paradigm shift to approach the clear action points laid out in the policy, to achieve his administration’s ambition of making Edo an STI hub.
“How do we create a mindset, how do we create the enabling environment, how do we create infrastructure to make these policy objectives become real? So that will be the next phase.” Obaseki queried.
In his presentation, Obahiagbon, congratulated the Governor on Edo’s status as the leading Information and Computer Technology (ICT) compliant state in Nigeria.
He pledged the Committee’s support in future efforts to strengthen STI in Edo State.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of the policy draft and the report to the Governor.
