The Kogi state government on Thursday said it was determined to employ pragmatic approach to make the state a hub of commercial activities and achieve economic breakthrough for the state.
The deputy governor of the state, Rt Hon Simon Achuba, who is also the chairman of the state economic and investment summit committee, stated this while speaking with newsmen on the summit scheduled for February 13 and 14 in Lokoja, the state capital.
He said the summit, the first since the creation of the state, was designed to showcase the potentials of the state to the local and international investors that had signalled their readiness to be part of the programme.
According to him, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibajo, ministers, captains of industry and other major stakeholders would gather to brainstorm during the summit.
He said: “The conceptualisation of the economic and investment summit derived essentially from the five thematic areas of the present administration’s New Direction agenda. It is the thinking of government that for the economic growth and opportunity which is the cornerstone of the New Direction blueprint to be achieved must be premised on the generation of viable economic and business ideas midwifed by a joint enterprise between the state government and private investors and business partners across the nation and the world at large.
“To achieve this objective, a clear line of thinking reflecting new approaches to development initiatives must be employed to steer clear of the shifty approaches in the past that dwelled much on sloganeering. This is the time for action and it requires pragmatic approach and this is what we have set out to do using this economic and investment summit.”
He explained that government wanted to leverage on the abundant human and mineral resources of the state to build a strong economy that the people of the state could be proud of.
The deputy governor said, “Kogi State is a haven of investment opportunities. We have enough natural endowments to place us on same footing with high profile economies of the federation and in fact, the world.
“From the high density alluvial soil deposit to gemstone and mineral saturated crust, the land of Kogi State can sustain clusters of industries that can answer to the economic well being of the people and also make the state the nation’s hub of agriculture and industrialisation. This has given us an identity with which we wish to market our products.
“These products and produce require modernisation to exploit and also some sophistication to find the market, hence the need for an assemblage of investors, industrialists, NGOs, business partners and organisations as well as experts from across the world to cross-fertilise ideas on how best to tap these resources for the benefit of the people of Kogi State.”
Corroborating the deputy governor, the state commissioner for agriculture, Kehinde Oloruntoba, a member of the committee, said government would use the event to showcase its potentials in agriculture with a view to tapping them for development.
He said the 350, 000 hectares earmarked for crop processing zone would be used for the agricultural and economic development of the state.
The commissioner added that government had packaged a post summit programme that would involve interfacing with end users of agricultural products.