By Bukola Adama
The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, yesterday, signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on land administration with Eco Bank and Southgate Technologies Consortium.
Speaking during the ceremony at Government House, Ilorin, Governor Ahmed said the digitisation of land administration was an e-governance initiative meant to introduce efficiency into land administration, create optimal utilisation of wealth and effective deployment of goods and services in the state.
The Governor said the reform is giant step towards efficiency in deployment of goods and services to create maximum impact on majority of people through the deployment of technology.
He said the MoU will lead to an improvement in the quality of service delivery, reduced turnaround time and maintain consistency in services.
The Governor stated that the digitisation of land administration in Kwara State will bring about an increase in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) with estimated annual revenue on lands administration above N5billion, reduce fraud and improve ease of doing business.
Ahmed added that it will improve public perception of state bureaucracy and strengthen institutional capacity as well as improve overall performance of public service.
The PPP has a model of Design-Build-Finance-Maintain & Transfer (DBF-MT) with a tenure of five years.
The Governor noted that the state has not taken advantage of technology to optimise the way and manner revenue are generated saying there was the need to take a leap away from a crude oil driven economy to a more efficient one by taking advantage of all assets that are available and translating them into wealth creation.
“Our economic growth in this country is tied to Oil and we must begin to move away from that area because we are heavily reliant on the centrally allocated funds garnered from the sales of crude oil. The only available way is to improve efficiency by taking advantage of platform created by technology,” he said.
In his remarks, the Director-General of KP3, Mr. Yomi Ogunsola said the government had to commence land reforms to enable the state rank among the best in ease of doing business in the country.
…committed to people-oriented programmes
The Kwara State Government has reiterated its commitment to make life more meaningful to the populace through the implementation of people-orientated programmes.
The Deputy Governor of the state, Elder Peter Kisira gave the assurance on Tuesday at the special thanksgiving service to mark the seventh year of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s administration and Democracy Day in Ilorin.
Elder Kisira stated that the state government would not relent in meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people.
The Deputy Governor appreciated the people for their cooperation even as he urged them not to relent as the tenure of this administration runs to an end.
He commended the first lady, Deaconess Omolewa Ahmed for her support and encouragement to the administration and the propagation of the gospel.
In his goodwill message, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter, Evang. Timothy Opoola commended the government for its encouragement to the association.
Opoola who is a Professor of Mathematics thanked God for the successes recorded so far and prayed that God would direct their path in the last one year.
In his message, titled “royal praise and thanksgiving”, the Minister in charge of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Sabo-Oke, Ilorin, Rev. James Olawuyi emphasised the need to always thank God in all circumstances adding that it was a fulfilment of God’s promises.Deaconess Ahmed read the first lesson taken from the book of Psalm chapter 124 verses one to eight while the Head of Service, Mrs Susan Modupe Oluwole read the second scripture from the book of Second Chronicles chapter 20 verse 18 to 30.
The special prayers organised for the state and the nation was witnessed by top government functionaries and clerics.
