The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has said the newly launched 30-year development plan is a comprehensive and all-encompassing document to drive sustainable socio-economic growth and development in the state over the next three decades.
Obaseki stated this while delivering his welcome address at a one-day workshop on the overview of Edo State Development and Physical Planning, organised by the Edo State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
Accrding to him, “the recently inaugurated Edo 30-year developmental plan is a very comprehensive and all-encompassing plan, which not only looks at our socio-economic development plans over the next 30 years but also deals with the physical development plans.
“It’s a very unique process in planning where we bring all stakeholders that make up for development to work on the plan. What I also didn’t emphasize during the inauguration was the fact that this exercise of creating a plan for our state and our future is not an exercise to produce a document.”
The governor continued: “It’s a process which we had commenced to change the way we organise ourselves and do things in Edo. It is a process whereby all stakeholders are brought together and tools are deployed to activate and animate the planning exercise. At the end of the next 15 months, we should have a comprehensive plan for our state.”
Obaseki further noted, “That process starts now and that is why we are here. It also involves consultants, academia, estate managers, among others, as well as all those who are involved in the process of transforming economic and social planning in the state.
“What I expect this afternoon is that you, the experts, will help us look at an overview of what we are trying to do. Where do we want to be in the next 30 years within the context of Nigeria? We may not be able to determine where Nigeria will be but we want to have a bit more certainty about where Edo will be.”
The Project Manager, Edo 2050, Dr. Francis Ntamu, while giving the project overview and implementation process, said that the three main process phases in the development plan include stakeholders consultations, communications and focus on risk management.
Other dignitaries at the event include Secretary to Edo State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq.; Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Iyamu SAN; Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Isoken Omo, and the Commissioner for Water Resources, Moses Agbukor, among others.
