The Managing Director of the South-West Development Commission, Dr Charles Akinola, says the commission will complement the efforts of the state governments in the region.
Akinola said this on Thursday in Akure at the ongoing South-West stakeholders’ dialogue organised by Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba Social-Political group, DAWN Commission, and South-West governors.
“This is exactly the kinds of things that the South-West Development Commission has been set up to do.
“We must actually thank President Bola Tinubu for the vision to establish the regional commissions.
“Really, they have not been set up to duplicate the agenda of the state or at the same time, allow the state governments to escape their mandate.
“But the South-West Development Commission, seeks to see how those projects that are regional in nature, that are often left unattended to, are given focus, pride of place.
“So we’re looking at projects that are integrative in nature,” he stated.
He described the ongoing dialogue as a very important stakeholder engagement for the commission.
“One, from the title of the theme, all is focused around development of the South-West.
“Today, we’ve had governors speak, we’ve had ministers of South-West extraction coming to give stewardship account of what they are doing.
“We’ve seen a lot going on by way of alignment of priorities, both at the level of the state and at the level of the federal.
“We’re looking at, for example, regional connectivity by rail. How do we get the region connected through highways, superhighways.
“Now, how do we get the state governments, the federal and private sector to come together to work on those kinds of infrastructure,” he said.
According to him, there is need to set up an infrastructure, a development fund that will be pretty much private sector-driven.
“The commission, with collaboration from other stakeholders, will catalyse private sector investments so that some of those kind of projects that are dear to the region can be funded.
“We will be engaging in the next several weeks with a broad range of stakeholders, communities, communities, governors, trade groups, and defining the vision of the commission so it becomes a shared vision.
“That is where we’ll be able to have a most inclusive set of drivers and people who will be driving the mission of the commission.
“We have engaged the governors, and we have engaged even people across the region.
“We came up with a framework for the South-West Development Commission at that time.
“So we had the opportunity to interact with governors across the states, also getting to find out from them what their priorities are, their own thinking about what regional development should be.
“So that is an ongoing process. There’s no way we’ll succeed if we don’t engage the governors,” he said.
He tasked the people of the region to support the commission and its visions to develop the region, stating that their contributions would be highly needed.
“We believe that the South-West has been waiting. We believe the opportunities here have been granted through the creation of the commission.
“We stand on a covenant with the people of the South-West that we’ll do all our best, and we’ll all be partners in progress with the governors, with the trade groups, youth groups, market women and others.
“So, collectively, we will share this vision and collectively drive prosperity through the work of the South-West Development Commission,” he stated.(NAN)
