Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, yesterday, said the state was partnering with the French Government to broaden the state’s economy and ensure better life for its people.
Makinde, who stated this while receiving a delegation of the French Government led by French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Jerome Pasquier, at the Executive Council Chambers of the Governor’s Office, Agodi, Ibadan, said that the partnership had yielded positive results for the state’s economic expansion agenda, while also broadening its economic landscape.

He said that part of the positive results being recorded in the state’s economic expansion efforts was the 26.4 per cent growth in its Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) in the first half of 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “We are happy to have this close relationship with the French Embassy and the Government of France. I am quite happy with the relationship. I have a very good memory of what is going on in France right now.

“We have also been addressing the infrastructural deficit of the state and that has been helping us to boost the economy.”

The governor said that he was ready to seek help where necessary to turn around the economy of Oyo State, adding that the state is ready and open to businesses that can bring development and growth to its economy. He, therefore, appealed to the French delegation to assist the state in the occupational and educational programme that can boost the state’s education system.

The leader of the delegation, Ambassador Pasquier, said that there were a lot of things that the French government could do with Oyo State, expressing the willingness of his country’s government to work with the state in agriculture, tourism, health and developing strong links that could help tertiary education in the state.