Ihedioha unveils Vision 2025 for Imo

Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State has said that his efforts at rebuilding the state were targeted at making Imo to be one of the top most developed states in the country in five years time.

Ihedioha also said that within seven months in office, his administration had been able to restore effective budget presentation, reduce cost of governance, embarked on extensive road rehabilitation projects, deployed technology as an enabler for effective service delivery and carried out broad reforms in the state civil service.

Speaking at the 2019 stakeholders luncheon held at Government House, Owerri, the governor said, “We laid out a vision to become one of the top three most developed economies in Nigeria by 2025 and ranked within Africa’s top 10 economies by 2030. We also set out to achieve this by leveraging our abundant human capital and natural resources to build an economy anchored on good governance, wealth creation, value for money and rule of law.

“These have yielded positive results. Recently (November), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), rated Imo State the Least Corrupt State in their 2nd Corruption Survey.

“Similarly, our country’s leading economic newspaper, BusinessDay ranked our State as the fastest growing economy in Nigeria in 2019.

“About the same period also, Imo State was appraised the Best Overall Performing State in ICT Development by the National Council on Communication and Digital Economy. Our comprehensive effort to deploy technology as an enabler for effective service delivery is yielding positive results. We have carried out trainings of our youths and women, set up two ICT hubs in the state while the Digital Imo Project is on course”.

He added that another dimension in his administration’s reform process was that “we have revitalized the Local Governments for optimal performance. Today, they are receiving their full statutory allocations directly. Under our constitutional oversight, our 27 Local Governments are constructing standard secretariat buildings to provide adequate accommodation and conducive working environment for workers”.

Ihedioha told the stakeholders that his administration was poised to achieve food security and agricultural revolution in the State in line with its stated policy.

He said, “This Christmas, many homes in Imo State would be eating rice planted, processed and packaged in Imo State.

“ The state’s ADAPALM is being revived while we have brought a viable investor for the Avutu Poultry Farm.”