Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, on Tuesday, approved the relocation and establishment of the College of Agriculture and Renewable Natural Resources of the Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH) to Iseyin,.
The governor, while speaking shortly after the 11th Executive Council meeting of 2021, held at the Exco Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, mandated the Ministry of Education and the management of LAUTECH to work with the community to ensure that land is provided for the establishment of the College.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicated that s take-off grant was also approved for the project.
The statement indicated that the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun; Commissioner for Justice; Professor Oyelowo Oyewo; Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barr. Olasunkanmi Olaleye and his Finance counterpart, Mr. Akinola Ojo, as well as the Special Assistant to the governor on Information Communication Technology, Mr. Bayo Akande, jointly addressed the media on the different items.
The Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the State, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo (SAN), stated that the Executive Council of the state considered and approved for onward transmission to the House of Assembly, the Audit Bill, the Assessment and Collection of Private Income Tax Bill and the Oyo State College of Agriculture Technology Bill.
According to Oyewo, the Audit Bill, is an initiative of the World Bank, the Federal Government and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and it is intended to improve the activities of the office of the Auditor-General of the state and the local government to ensure accountability and transparency.
He added that the state is also forwarding to the Assembly the “Oyo State assessment and collection of personal income tax regulation, which prohibits consultants and other third parties from accessing and collecting personal income tax on behalf of the state. This function will now be performed by Oyo State Internal Revenue Service.
“The last is the Oyo State College of Agriculture Technology Bill. This Bill is to enhance the status of the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology from a Monotechnic to Polytechnic, so that it will be able to enjoy the status of accessing funds and participate in the Education Trust Fund.
“And this is to also improve on the services it can provide to the people of Oyo State in the educational sector including the expansion of programmes and also the standardisation of the structure we have.
“This, we believe, will impact positively on the quality and type of education that is being offered by this institution,” Oyewo added.
Speaking on the approval for the commencement of residents’ registration programme, the Special Assistant on ICT, Akande, explained that as a government that believes in using data, science and logic to drive development, the state government is embarking on the residents’ registration programme in order to develop a database that will enable it to plan better for the development and security of the state.
He noted that the state government has embarked on similar exercises for farmers, government workers and other sectors and that the results have been helpful in planning and executive of different policies, adding that the enumeration and registration of residents would be an ongoing exercise.
“Today, at the Executive Council meeting, the Exco approved the Oyo State residents registration programme. It is a programme that involves the enumeration and registration of all residents of Oyo State.
“This is in a bid by His Excellency to secure the state, so we can know the people coming into and going out of the state.
“This will also enable the government to plan more effectively. It will also help in revenue collection as we can then bring more residents under the Oyo State catchment.
“It will help the government provide more resources based on the data that we have gotten from the registration,” Akande said.
