State of the State Address to mark the 2nd anniversary of the Oyebanji administration

Protocols

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour and privilege to deliver my second State of the State address at this hallowed chamber of Ekiti State House of Assembly.

This tradition of delivering a State of the State Address, which represents an essential pillar of democracy and a shining example of accountability, continues with today’s address. As your Governor, I come here with a great sense of reverence for this honourable House and the good people of Ekiti State, recognizing the great honour that has been bestowed upon me to occupy this office, signifying the trust of the people, not just in me, but in our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). I do not take this honour for granted.

I will continue to thank His Excellency, Dr. Kayode Fayemi who enshrined this democratic practice of accountability in our governance culture in Ekiti. To date, our State remains the only state in Nigeria that has enshrined the State of the State Address as a legal requirement for stewardship. We must remain proud of this distinction.

I stand before you today with a heart filled with gratitude, humility, and a profound sense of duty as I address the great people of Ekiti State on a significant occasion that marks yet another anniversary in office— our second. I want to sincerely extend my deepest appreciation to the Almighty God for His faithfulness and abiding grace over us and to all the good people of Ekiti State who have continued to keep faith with us, supporting our vision, policies and programmes with great fervour. Your devotion to the progress of Ekiti State is commendable!

Before I go further into this address, let me sincerely thank this House and its leadership for the strong cooperation in the service of our people. Your support has been a major factor behind our successes.  Together, with the good people of Ekiti, you have been the drivers of our administration’s bold march forward.

We will always be grateful to the fathers of this great state whose leadership in times past laid a solid foundation upon which we are now building. I therefore want to thank my immediate predecessor Dr Kayode Fayemi, CON for his continued support. I also acknowledge the support of former Governors, H.E. Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, CON; H.E. Ayodele Fayose; and H.E. Engr. Segun Oni.  I also appreciate all our traditional leaders, Leaders of Thought, religious leaders, as well as party leaders and members across all levels for their sacrifices and support.

My profound gratitude to the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for his very strong support for our administration. Mr. President has been a strong pillar of support for our government. Most of our achievements would have been impossible without his support and encouragement. I am also grateful to the Ekiti Caucus in the National Assembly under the leadership of the Senate Leader Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN and the Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development; Mr Dele Alake for their support and cooperation.

Pillars of Administration 

In keeping with our social contract with Ekiti people, we designed the “Six Pillars”, a classification of our governing agenda built from our campaign pledges, we have continued to steer Ekiti towards a more inclusive and prosperous state. Rooted in these pillars are the Ekiti Development Plan 2021-2050, which highlights the development projection of our State in the next 30 years, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our achievements under these Six Pillars, which include: 1. Governance, 2. Youth Development and Job Creation, 3. Human Capital Development, 4. Agriculture and Rural Development, 5. Infrastructure and Industrialisation and 6. Arts, Culture, and Tourism, will form the thrust of my presentation here today.

Governance: Law and Order

Mr. Speaker, the first duty of the government is to maintain law and order, ensuring the protection of life and property. With full appreciation of this cardinal responsibility, we have continued to make substantial investments in the security architecture of our State. To this end, we have ramped up acquisitions of security assets to further bolster our arsenal following earlier massive acquisitions.   Specifically, we have effected the following: commencement of full operations at Ikere, Ijero, Ikole and Omuo Fire Service Stations; procurement of Vehicles for WNSN, aka Amotekun Corps; upward review of Amotekun Corps salary (Effective from July 2023), and the deployment of additional troops from Nigerian Army 32 Artillery Brigade. In the course of the year under review, and in response to the request of our traditional rulers, we recently established the Agro-Marshals Corps as a grassroots security system to further man our forests and places kidnappers often use as their operational bases. We have also expanded the capabilities of the Early Warning System to drive our Safe City programme.

Our bottom-up security and intelligence system, which entails strengthening local intelligence and community involvement in security, has continued to expand and advance. Our close coordination with chairmen of the Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas continues to yield dividends with more successes in intelligence gathering, crime prevention, arrests and prosecution of criminals. This is a strategy that will continue to receive priority attention in this administration.

I must sincerely thank the security agencies, namely:  the Police, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Amotekun, and the plethora of community-based security outfits, for their contribution to this success story. We are, however, aware that security is an ongoing concern and must receive the highest focus at all times. Thus, we will continue to work with our security partners to ensure that no gaps are allowed, and continuous improvement is entrenched.

Governance derives its force from law, and its compass from sound policies. Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the leadership and Honourable Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly for being worthy and reliable partners in this regard. Your forward-thinking lawmaking provides a firm foundation upon which our governance rests. Some of the notable laws and policies that have come into force include:

i.Ekiti State Local Content Law

ii.Ekiti State Bureau of Asset Management Law

iii.Ekiti State Environmental Protection and Watershed Management Agency Law

iv.Ekiti State Regulation Approval Law

v.Ekiti State House of Assembly Power and Privileges Law

vi.Ekiti State High Court Amendment Law

vii.Ekiti State Property Protection Amendment Law

viii.Executive Order on the Promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment

1. Executive Order on the Establishment, Adoption and Implementation of Framework for Responsive and Inclusive Land-Intensive Agricultural Investment (FRILIA)
2. Executive Order on Trade Grievances Redress Mechanism (GRM).

These legal instruments are evidence of our progressive relationship. We are determined to continue, with your support, assenting to, and implementing laws and policies for the development of our dear state and the betterment of the lives of our people. We are confident that the coming months and years would witness even greater collaboration in this area.

Investment promotion

To achieve our inclusive and sustainable development goals, we must attract investments to Ekiti. Therefore, we have strategically combined legal instruments, policies, reforms, and targeted social and physical infrastructure interventions to position our State as a prime destination for investments.  Our milestones are as follows:

• Inauguration of the Ekiti State Development and Investment Promotion Agency Board
• Effectiveness of the $80M investment loan for the Ekiti Knowledge Zone (EKZ) by AfDB – the construction of the zone is expected to commence in 2025.
• Provision of $100,000 each to ten cooperatives in partnership with USADF
• Setup of N1B cooperative fund for Ekiti Cooperative Industry
• Partnership with Access Bank to facilitate N1B credit facilities to Ekiti women
• Approval of Export Strategy Guideline and Policy to encourage export business in Ekiti state •Issuance of Executive Order on the Promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment
• Issuance of Executive Order on the Establishment, Adoption and Implementation of Framework for Responsive and Inclusive Land-Intensive Agricultural Investment (FRILIA)
• Issuance of Executive Order on Trade Grievances Redress Mechanism (GRM)
• Rehabilitation of Agric Olope Market Phase 1 and 2

Administration

To improve service delivery to our people, we understand that the administrative process needs to be continuously upgraded. This, we have committed to doing.  We have undertaken the following additional activities:

• Completion of the Local Government Service Commission office building, it will be commissioned in the course of this anniversary.
• Ongoing renovation of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and House of Assembly Service Commission buildings.
• Restoration of wireless network infrastructure to our campuses, which is a first step in our digital roadmap being championed by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Digital Economy.

Fully appreciating the value of qualified personnel and their contribution to optimum service delivery, we have also undertaken the recruitment of workers to fill some important vacancies across the MDAs in the state. Some of the new recruitments include:

• 565 junior officers into the state civil service, and
• 600 senior officers appointed into the state civil service
• Conversion of those on temporary to permanent appointment.

To upskill our personnel and ensure sustained readiness for the job, we have continued to prioritize training and retraining. Our capacity development efforts, which have been largely driven by the Ekiti State Staff Development Centre, have seen us conduct:

• Induction training for 55 newly appointed officers into specialized cadres
• Orientation programme for 80 newly recruited officers into various MDAs
• Overseas training of two (2) officers.

To ensure sustained optimum output across MDAs, we have initiated Strategic Project Monitoring Systems (SPMS), a dashboard to track MDAs’ deliverables.

For us, the welfare of all our workers is paramount. To this end, we have made additional improvements to the welfare of our workers, consistent with our earlier pledges and accomplishments. The list of welfare initiatives, include:

• Payment of N8,562,042,632.79 to state pensioners and N7,442,076,921.25 to Local Government pensioners from October 16, 2023 till date
• Payment of N4,900,000,000.00 as gratuity to state and N2,803,562,592.72 to Local Government retirees from October 16, 2023 till date
• Conduct of 2022/23 promotion exercise for unified staff in the LGAs
• Disbursement of N164.4M loan to 1,298 civil servants.
• Disbursement of N200m to primary school teachers
• Continues on Saturday

Ekiti economy

Despite the macroeconomic headwinds in the country, the multi-sectoral outlook for the Ekiti state economy continues to be positive. This has been driven by our fiscal reforms, budget performance, aggressive revenue-generation push, and strategic investments in human and physical infrastructure. Building on the successes of our 2023 Budget which saw us accomplish the following:

• 106% performance on internally generated revenue (2023)
• 86.5% performance on capital expenditure (2023)
• Overall revenue performance at 93.4% (2023)
• Overall expenditure performance at 91% (2023)
• 45% allocation to capital projects in 2024 appropriation
• 34% performance on capital expenditure at Quarter 1 (2024), and
• 44.7% performance on internally generated revenue at Quarter 1 (2024)
• A capital/recurrent ratio of 57%/43% in the 2024 supplementary budget proposal which is being considered by this honourable House of Assembly.

I am pleased to inform you that due to our fidelity to fiscal transparency and accountability:

• Ekiti ranked 1st in the PSLI Subnational Audit Efficacy Index
• Ekiti State scored 92/100 and ranked 2nd in the BudgIT State Fiscal Transparency League for Q1 2024.
• Ekiti topped the BudgiT’s State Fiscal Transparency League for Q2 2024 with a total score of 97%

Our sacred duty is to ensure that none of our people is left behind. We will continue to prioritize inclusion for both our people and localities, ensuring that development is spread all round. Our broad vision is to have an economy that is productive, in line with our vision of shared prosperity. We will continue to invest in critical productivity drivers, while ensuring economic activity is private sector-led, by attracting new businesses to Ekiti, while also focusing on supporting existing ones to grow.

We are aware of our need to diversify our economy and create an environment that puts people in jobs. This is reflected in our priorities, with investments in human capital development, agriculture and infrastructure taking a significant share of our expenditure.

Human capital development: Education

As we all know, Ekiti is famed for being the home of education in Nigeria. We are a learned people committed to keeping the light of enlightenment blazing. As a government, we are well aware of our responsibility to, not only preserve this legacy, but ensure that our education is in tune with advancements in technology, innovation and the knowledge economy. To this end, we have embarked on some of the most far-reaching and impactful programmes in education to date. Some of these interventions include:

• Payment of almost N700m as Running Grants to all public schools in Ekiti State for the 2023/2024 session.
• Payment of examinations fees exceeding N1.2 billion for over 150,000 students across junior and senior secondary school exams since 2023
• Payment of over N2.5 billion as counterpart funding for the 2022 and 2023 Universal Basic Education Commission counterpart funding, while payment for 2024 will be made in January 2025 to ensure immediate access to additional funding.
• Procurement of N174,032,505 worth instructional materials for primary schools
• Procurement of 16 Toyota Corolla cars as monitoring vehicles for Education Secretaries
• Purchase of 18-seater Toyota Hiace bus for UBEC Smart School, Ijan-Ekiti
• Payment of car and housing loans
• Upgrading graduate teachers in primary schools to grade level 16.
• Various training and capacity building interventions for over 1,700 teachers.
• Over 500 people trained on Gender Based Violence (GBV) Grievance Redness Mechanism (GRM)
• Over 2,000 teachers have been recruited since the inception of the administration.
• Multiple collaborations in agriculture introducing new techniques in over 120 school pilot farms.
• Over N150 million in scholarships awarded to almost 1,600 students across various undergraduate and post-graduate programmes.
• Payment of over N100 million in bursary awards
• A sum of ₦14,293,424,499 had been expended on renovation and construction in 203 public secondary schools in Ekiti State under the AGILE project, while the following equipment were distributed.
• 2,600 computers Laptops/Desktops;
• 60 interactive boards, 80 Printers, 75 photocopiers, 100 solar inverters and internet services were supplied to 42 schools to facilitate e-teaching/learning
• 32 vulnerable/children at risk and GBV survivors provided with basic needs including school uniforms, school bags, books for 2023/2024 session.
• 2,978 furniture items procured for schools.
• 10,011 students enrolled for Safe Space sessions (2023/2024) in 101 schools for personal development and Life Skills education.
• 2,808 indigent students’ parents were given conditional cash transfer for 2023/2024 session.
• Under the 2nd Chance Education Scheme, providing opportunities for girls who dropped out of school because of pregnancy, socio-economic factors. etc. 20 centres across the State have commenced teaching in September, 2024.
• Construction of Drop-In-Centre (Skill Acquisition) for out-of-school boys and girls
• Commencement of free mass transit scheme for public secondary school students

These massive interventions are in addition to earlier efforts geared towards improving education in the state. These include:

• Increasing access to secondary school and maintaining healthy teacher-pupil ratio in our schools
• Renovation and rehabilitation of facilities in over 50 secondary schools across Ekiti
• Renovation and rehabilitation of over 100 primary schools in Ekiti under the State Universal

Basic Education Board

• Implementation of safe spaces for 6,000 students in 101 schools
• Training of 353 ICT teachers on digital literacy skills
• Digital literacy training for students of 100 public schools
• Installation of internet facility (airtel 4G/Starlinks) and inverters to facilitate digital literacy in 100 schools across all LGAs
• Training of School Security Committee Members across the 202 public secondary schools in the state
• Distribution of computers with Disability Assistive Electronic Software (DAES) in the three special schools in the state (Ikere, Ido Osi and Ijero LGAs)
• Distribution of Entrepreneurial Skill Equipment, Mobility Aids and Braille Equipment in the three special schools in the state (Ikere, Ido Osi and Ijero LGAs)
• Disbursement of N200M car/housing loan for public primary school teachers
• Addressing outstanding Universal Basic Education Board obligations to contractors
• Bolstering the financial capacity of our higher institutions by adding the sum of N500 million to their monthly subventions.
• Addressing poor infrastructure in our technical colleges through comprehensive rehabilitation of the three of them at Igbara-Odo, Otun-Ekiti and Ijero-Ektii respectively.

The above interventions have led to a massive improvement in students’ enrolment, performance, teaching, learning outcomes in the sector and a drastic reduction in out of school children in the State. It is on record that Ekiti has one of the least out of school children in Nigeria.

Special attention was also given to the Special Schools and these are:

• Renovation of boys’ and girls’ Hostels and Dining Halls in the three Government Special Schools.
• Prompt release of Monthly Feeding Grants to the Special Schools and Rehabilitation Centre.
• Provision of ICT gadgets, including 45 Desktop Computers, 63 Laptop Computers, 3 Photocopier Machines, 3 Printer Machines, 3 Interactive Boards, 3 Lithium Batteries, 3 Charger Controllers, 3 5-KVA Solar Inverters with 16 Panels, 45 UPS, 3 Scanning Machines, and 1 Braille Embosser for the School for the Blind through the AGILE project.
• Provision of Vocational and Skill Acquisition equipment, such as Tailoring equipment, Hair-Dressing equipment, Food and Nutrition equipment, Barbing equipment, Hat and fascinator equipment through AGILE to the Government Special Schools
• Sign Language Training for civil and public servants in Ekiti State
• Provision of assistive devices, such as wheelchair and White Cane to Disabled persons in Ekiti State.
• Establishment of the first adapted classrooms in the public special schools for children with disabilities in Nigeria
• The first state to employ speech therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists in the public special schools in Nigeria.
• Established a children service center for children with Disabilities at the Old governor’s office, Oke Ori-Omi, Ado-Ekiti

Digital Skill and Youth Employment

Our investments in the acquisition of digital skills by our youth has been consistent and substantial. We believe that to become a global player either as entrepreneurs or employees, requires the acquisition of relevant skills. We have continued to build on significant accomplishments in this area to expand access to sustainable opportunities for our young people. Recall that we had announced the delivery of the following, among others:

• Approval of Ekiti Knowledge Zone as a Free Trade Zone which will provide 12,000 jobs for young people in Ekiti
• Trained over 500 youths in digital skill across different skill sets through Ekiti State Digital Academy in partnership with Tech4Dev & Meta
• Leveraging on the Innovation Grant Facility of the World Bank’s Innovation Development and Effectiveness in Acquisition of Skill (IDEAS) to increase access to digital economic participation by our people
• Empowered digital innovators with £6,000 in partnership iUK KTN
• Establishment of the Ekiti State Start-Up Garage.

MSMEs Development

• Construction of proposed Ekiti State Mega Local Fabrics (Aso Oke) Production Centre
• Disbursement of N400M grant to 922 MSEs
• Training of 100 unemployed graduates for business and self-reliance
• Sponsorship of 50 MSMEs/light manufacturing processors to the Lagos International Trade Fair
• Sponsorship of CAC certificates for 5,400 Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
• Construction of Women Skills Acquisition Center in Ado-Ekiti
• Facilitation of of 100KVA solar inverter system for MSME cluster at the Technology Incubation Center, Ado-Ekiti
• Partnership with CoolPlus Ltd to upskill 1500 artisans to technicians on, refrigerator and air conditioning services
• Facilitation of 17,000 applications of NMSMEs for the Federal Micro-Grant Scheme

Health & Human Services

In the health sector we have embarked on a transformative journey towards universal health coverage, marked by significant advancements in leadership and governance, service delivery, workforce and capacity building, health promotion and disease prevention, health financing, and healthcare infrastructure. The Ministry of Health has implemented robust governance frameworks to enhance accountability and strategic alignment within the health sector.

To drive our health interventions, we developed a multi-year annual operational plan (2024-2026) to ensure better planning for capital projects that span more than a financial year, and prioritization of projects geared towards universal health coverage.

Across the three levels of care, we have embarked on an extensive upgrade of our infrastructure. These include;

• Installation of a new mammogram machine at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital to increase access to early detection of breast cancer.
• Complete renovation of the theatre suites, Accident & Emergency ward, dialysis centre and selected wards at EKSUTH to aid service delivery
• Upgrade of Ikole Specialist Hospital to a Federal Medical Center in line with our vision to become a regional health hub.
• Upgrade of the Ekiti State Drug and Health Supplies Management Agency warehouse to a pharma-grade facility, guaranteeing better storage of our drugs and consumables.
• Construction of the HMB/Doctor’s Quarters Road, including a bypass to reduce burden of health workers going to give care at the hospital.
• Ongoing renovations for nine General Hospitals in Ijan, Ijesa Isu, Ilawe, Okemesi, Efon Alaaye, Iye, Ayede, Ilupeju/Itapa, and Ifaki. These facilities are also being equipped with best-in-class equipment that help improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
• In the course of the second year anniversary, we will be laying the foundation of a multi-purpose facility at EKSUTH, it will comprise of 80-bed ward, conference centre, modern pharmacy, a library, VIP suites, offices etc

Beyond infrastructure, we have instituted a series of capacity-building, professional development and training initiatives to enhance the skills and capabilities of healthcare professionals and service providers. These workforce capacity developments include:

• Training of 50 Senior-level staff from the health sector on a leadership and management executive course by the Lagos Business School.
• Training of 34 mid-level and senior health managers on Healthcare Management and Leadership by the Center for Epidemiology and Health Development, Deloitte Nigeria, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
• Providing opportunity for 8 of our staff (including the chairperson house committee on health) to attend a fully funded seminar in China for 2 weeks to learn about public health surveillance and public health management.
• Training of 350 facility-level staff across 120 health facilities in quality improvement modalities to enhance health service delivery across the state.
• Training of 220 health workers on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

With the perennial concerns about disease outbreaks, the state continues to remain on high alert. The use of rapid response teams spread across all wards in the state, and our decentralisation of incident management structures to the 16 local government areas, enable us pick up on early warning signals, and allow us respond appropriately. This work may appear thankless, but the efforts of our health team have helped curtail potential epidemics and limited our exposure to any disease outbreak this year to the barest minimum.

I am happy to inform you that these investments are yielding measurable outputs and outcomes. This year alone,

• More than 210,000 girls (ages 9-14) received the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine, enabling us to achieve 91% of our target coverage.
• We have identified and placed on treatment, 93% of the estimated cases of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Our ability to test, treat and help suppress viral loads for people living with HIV/AIDS, means they can live a healthy, fulfilling and productive live.
• To keep our children’s immune system healthy and support their rapid growth, we provided more than 600,000 vitamin A supplements, to children under 5 years, allowing us to achieve 81% target coverage. I must thank my dear wife, Her Excellency for her consistent support and her readiness to always lead the campaigns.
• Mindful of the rise of non-communicable diseases, we screened 1,600 civil servants, focusing on hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. This is a pre-cursor to a state-wide health promotions and awareness campaign taking place this month of October tagged “Know Your number, Control Your Number”. I am supportive of this initiative and I encourage everyone in Ekiti to come out en-masse to get screened.

Last year, I announced that under our flagship health insurance program (Ulerawa), we provide an explicit but guaranteed package of care, which includes free delivery across our 177 primary health centres. This year alone, over 4,000 babies born were delivered free of charge, and more than 400,000 persons have accessed free care, at our primary health care facilities courtesy of Ulerawa. I am happy to inform you that this year also, we have now extended coverage of services under Ulerawa to all 3.6million residents of Ekiti including pensioners. As at today, over 9,000 pensioners have enrolled  in the program.

Social Welfare

Ekiti has not been exempted from the cost-of-living crisis which has proven a huge burden for Nigerians across the country. Determined to provide relief to our people, our Cash Transfer Unit (SCTU) and Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) intervention channels have continued to be sources of succour to our people. Our people have continued to receive needed support on a regular basis.

We enrolled 154,003 households including 581,503 individuals on the National Social Register (NSR). This provides a pool of vulnerable individuals that we can extract beneficiaries from for our different social schemes

We undertook the disbursement of N1.04 billion at N25,000 each to 24,780 National Social Register (NSR) beneficiaries and 16,876 Rapid Response Register (RRR) beneficiaries under the National Cash Transfer scheme.

We disbursed a total of N181.8m between October 2023 to July 2024 to 1326 individual beneficiaries under the Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) Scheme. We also disbursed N174.8m to another set of 2000 beneficiaries under the LIPW scheme between March 2024-September 2024. The combined total under the LIPW scheme is N356.6m

Our senior citizens continue to occupy a special place in our welfare plans.  Through our social investment schemes, we are addressing the needs of our vulnerable senior citizens by providing regular monetary support. Apart from our regular interventions, we distributed gifts to our senior citizens on the International Day of

Older Persons

We disbursed a total of N250m at the rate of N25,000 to 10,000 individuals at 5,000 per month for 5 months between October 2023 and February 2024 under the fuel subsidy withdrawal palliative scheme.

Following unfortunate fire disasters, we disbursed N41.3 million to victims in Ekiti state

We disbursed a total of N300m under the EKCARES Social Transfer scheme to 5000 (1751 male, 3249 females) beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are a mix of aged, people living with disabilities, chronically ill and urban poor in our State

We have disbursed N320m to 2000 (627 male, 1373 female) beneficiaries and N185.4m to 1,159 (322 male, 837 female) beneficiaries making a total of N505.4m under the EK CARES Livelihood Support Grant scheme to household businesses

N89.4M was also awarded as livelihood grants to 559 beneficiaries through the Payment Service Provider (PSP) channel

We released N331m for purchase and distribution of items to indigent persons across the state.

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