Ondo Diaspora Smart City to get Joint Museum Centre

A joint tourist centre in form of a museum in the South-West, through the Diaspora Smart City tagged "Green Economy Initiative Project", is in the offing in Ondo State.

This is expected to be a tourism hub for the Southwest Regional Development Centre for promoting cultural heritage and attracting the Diaspora Community as well as foreigners to reconnect with their roots.

Ondo State Commissioner for Regional Integration and Diaspora Relations, Prince Boye Ologbese, declared this when he presented a paper in lbadan, the Oyo State capital, during a meeting attended by focal representatives from the six South-western region.

The states include Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Lagos and Oyo,

Recall that the Ondo state Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, recently at the State Executive Council meeting gave approval for the establishment of the Diaspora Smart City tagged "Green Economy Initiative", to promote economic potentials and increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the entire Southwest, through tourism.

He stressed the building of a "mini Dubai" in Akure for the region to showcase her tourism potential and cultural heritage to the world, and tackle the climate change issues at the same time.

"This is a diversification of the economy we are trying to introduce to the region; a complete ECOSYSTEM that will affect the region through the green economy initiative, because we don't want to rely on FAAC as the only source of revenue to drive our government business activities in the region but put a legacy that will promote robust economic growth for our region"

Ologbese highlighted the advantages of floating such joint tourism hubs such as raising the revenue generation of each state as well as opening up the state to the outside world, besides promoting entrepreneurship and creating employment opportunities for the youth across the region.

He assured that the six states involved would be allocated plots of land to build their respective museum to showcase their tourism potential.

The commissioner commended the Director General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Dr. Seye 0yeleye, for hosting the Focal Representatives meeting which will hitherto further promote the unity of South West region as well as follow the "Renewed Hope" agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and for creating the South West Development Commission that will work together with DAWN Commission to actualise the growth and development of the region.

Ologbese appreciated the effort of Ondo and Ekiti states' governors- Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Abiodun Oyebanji respectively, saying "Ondo State and Ekiti State established a business integration, first of its kind since the creation of the two states, which the museum project can be tailored towards."

ln attendance at the meeting at Cocoa House in Ibadan were Ondo State Commissioner for Regional Integration and Diaspora Relations, Prince Boye Ologbese; Ekiti State Commissioner for Regional Integration and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dr. Kareem; Special Adviser for the DAWN Commission, Lagos State, Sunmi Adesanya.

He also appreciated others such as Special Adviser, Regional Integration, 0sun state, Dr.Kamal Adekilekun; Senior Special Assistant, Special Duties and SDG Ogun State, Damilola 0tubanjo; Executive Director,, Finance & Budget and Economic Planning, 0yo state, Alhaji Bello Kolawole, and the Director General, DAWN Commission, Dr.Seye 0yeleye, among others.

Source: The Hope Newspaper