The Commissioner for Finance in Osun, Dr Wale Bolorunduro, on has said that Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration invested in building of infrastructure to stimulate social and economic development.
Bolorunduro made this known in Ibadan while presenting paper titled “Improving Public Finance for Better Governance, Example of the State of Osun,” at a forum of the Correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council.
Bolorunduro stated that “Osun Government realises that before there can be any meaningful economic development, it is important to put infrastructure in proper shape.
“For example, development of roads will make farmlands accessible. This is why the governor, Aregbesola, insisted that 10 kilometres of roads must be tarred in each local government area of the state to open ways to social and economic development,” he said.
The finance commissioner said that Osun was a state with low revenue from the federal allocation.
“Due to high interest rate being demanded by the commercial banks, Osun Government registered a programme at the Capital Market to raise N60 billion loan for a 10-year development plan,” he said.
Bolorunduro said this does not mean that the state government would take the loan at once.
“The state government can only take a maximum of N30 billion at once for physical development,” he said.
The commissioner said that Aregbesola also introduced Opon-Imo, a computer device approach to education in addition to the rebuilding of dilapidated structures and re-classification of schools to ensure adherence to standards.
“The Opon-Imo, a computer device, which encompasses textbooks and notepads, was meant to boost students’ educational performance,” he said.
Bolorunduro said that the state government supplied 750,000 single uniforms to students. The idea of a single uniform was for economic expediency,” he said.
The commissioner said that the state government had provided 40,000 jobs for indigenes through its “O-YES scheme, adding that this was part of the measures put in place to reduce poverty level.
“After the O-YES training, some of them with the right qualifications were absorbed into the mainstream of the state’s civil service,” he said.
Bolorunduro said that the state government would compensate the victims of the ongoing demolition exercise in the course of dualising Ede Junction to Gbongan road provided they have relevant papers.