RECENTLY, the Ondo State Government signed five Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and agreements with different firms to boost socio-economic development in the state.
THE firms include Bambi Farms Limited, Premium and Nelson Limited, Alpha Mead Development Company Limited, Integrated Associate Limited and Kladet Services Limited.
ALPHA Mead Development Company will renovate, manage, and operate a lease on the Ondo State International Culture and Events Centre (The Dome) in Alagbaka, Akure.
IT will take on the project for a period of 15 years, complete parts of the events centre yet to be completed, like the waterfalls, landscaping and kitchen.
IN the first five years, it would pay N40, million and ten per cent of gross revenue, and pay 25 per cent of gross revenue to the state in the last ten years of the lease.
INTEGRATED Associate would develop the Sunshines Housing Estate project comprising of 350 blocks of 396 units on 32.56 hectares of land along Oda Road, Akure.
PREMIUM and Nelson will preoccupy itself with the provision of the Government Reserved Area (GRA) with modern infrastructure on Sunprime Estate in Abo-Asaakin Community, off Akure/Owo Expressway, opposite Akure Airport, Akure.
BAMBI Farms Limited will be engaged with the development, operation, and management of Oil Palm Plantation on 1,000 hectares of land in Ore Agribusiness, Ore.
WHILE Kladet Services Limited saddles itself with the management of statutory revenue collection on fisheries in the state.
THE HOPE believes that the initiative will add momentum to the efforts of the current administration in its bid to turn Ondo State into an industrialized one.
FOR instance, the agreements, when fully operationalised, will provide employment for the teeming unemployed youths in the state and tackle the challenge of poverty.
SEEN within the context of the current economic realities in the country, it will also reduce the scourge of crime and cut down the alarming rate of rural-urban drift.
WITH the development of the GRA, the problem of housing in the rapidly growing state capital will ease, as well as enable residents of the state to enjoy facilities that go with better and more sophisticated urban development policies.
NEEDLESS to say, the concession agreements will improve the earning capacity of the state government and give it the economic strength to engage development programmes in other key areas of the state.
THEREFORE, we see the engagement of the five firms as a good development, since they would help in the economic transformation of Ondo State when their services, become fully operation.
WE praise their willingness to participate in the private, public venture, we implore them to get down to business and bring efficient management of the government assets they are to manage.
SUCH a move will not only reduce the Spending of the Ondo State Government but also improve its earning capacity and prevent public assets from becoming an economic burden on the tax-paying residents in the state.
Having said this, we commend the state government for its initiative and urge it to sign more of these agreements for accelerated economic developments of the state.
SUCH arrangements no doubt, would transform the famous Idanre Hills and the Idanre Golf Course into revenue-generating engines for the state government.
FINALLY, we implore residents of the state to cooperate with the government and its partners in their bids to turnaround the economic fortunes of the state.
