Ugwuanyi Congratulates GOCOP on its First Annual Conference

Fri, Aug 11, 2017 | By publisher


Politics

GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has sent his heart-warming congratulations to the members of the Guild of Corporate online publishers, GOCOP, on its first annual conference. The governor who described members of GOCOP as “responsible operators of the respected new media platforms across our dear nation” said he was excited by the prospect of the conference delivering to the nation, emerging road maps on how to tame the current heady economic crisis plaguing the country.

While supporting the GOCOP on the theme of the conference, Ugwuanyi said his administration had “since its inception continued to explore avenues to grow the very lean financial base of the state which is about the third from the bottom in terms of receipts from the Federation Account.”

In doing that, he said one of such steps taken so far was the drive for investors from within and outside the country, which prompted the governor to lead a delegation of state officials on an economic mission to Dublin, Ireland early in 2016.

“Following from this first step, the administration had also floated an economic summit during which prospective investors thronged the event and brainstormed on myriads of huge business potentials in the state. At the moment, a good number of investors are at various stages of actualizing their moves to float business ventures in the state while some have actually begun processes of setting up their infrastructure bases.

“Yet, our best strategy from the onset has been to run a very frugal system based on fiscal discipline at all levels of government. Hence, irrespective of the overriding problem of inability of many state governments to pay salaries and meet up with other responsibilities of governance, Enugu State government has continued to pay salaries and pensions between the 23rd and 25th of every month.

“The Ugwuanyi administration has also done considerably well in infrastructure development as it has begun its plan to create more urban centres and break the jinx of having Enugu remaining as a one-city state. The result of this exhibition of utmost responsible disposition in handling the finances of the state has, of course, earned the governor awards and plaudits from organisations, groups and individuals.

“One other major step taken so far by this administration is the reinforcement of the state’s internally-generated revenue machinery by bringing in professionals to run the affairs of the Inland Revenue Board.

“So far, it has upped the ante in revenue generation beyond the imagination of close observers of that sector of the state economy, making it possible for the state to continue to meet up its obligations at the level it has done so far.”

Aug 11, 2017 @ 1:00 GMT

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