Date: 2019-12-25

Kwara State has dedicated a whole ministry to enterprise as part of its larger strategies to grow businesses, encourage creativity, create more jobs and boost the revenue generation base of the state, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has said.

The governor said a culture of waiting for monthly allocation from Abuja was neither sustainable nor pro-development because it meant the majority of the population would be dependent on the money from the centre with little left to drive infrastructural development.

Abdulrazaq made the statement on Monday during a tour of the multi-billion dollar KAM Holding's factory in Ilorin.

"The fact that salaries consume the larger chunk of our income slows down our development by limiting what we put in capital projects like schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. But the way to go is simple.

"Enterprise, through the private sector efforts like what you (KAM Holding) are doing, is what we need to grow our society and increase our GDP and standard of living. This is our focus and it is the reason we changed the Ministry of Commerce and related ones to Ministry of Enterprise. "That is our future. If we can do this properly, then we will turn this state around and that is our intention," he said.

Identifying him as the largest private investor in Kwara so far, the governor commended the KAM Holding's proprietor, Kamoru Yusuf, for investing so heavily in the state, adding that government would always seek his advice in its entrepreneurial efforts as well as support him to do more for the state.