Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, commended the Federal Government for its efforts towards providing ensuring sufficient water for the people in the region, particularly Ilesha town.
Aregbesola made the commendation when the Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Reng Ochekpe, accompanied by the ministry’s technical officials, toured the Ilesha Dam after visiting him at the State Government House in Osun State.
The governor also expressed his appreciation to the Minister for her unusual interest in the welfare of the people of the state, explaining that the suffering of the people who searched for potable water would be alleviated as soon as the project gets completed.
He noted that while being mindful of the shared responsibility of the three tiers of government in the provision of potable water to the people, he is conscious of the need for more assistance in the reticulation of water from the dam to ensure perfect completion of the project because of the limited funds from the State.
The Governor stressed the need to continue with the second and third phases of the project towards ensuring the realization of the ultimate objectives of the huge investment. He stated that the State Government on its part would complement the federal government’s efforts and will require support in the treatment of the water as well as its reticulation for public consumption. He promised the State
Government’s support and solicited for further partnership from the federal government on more of such projects in the State.
Ochekpe averred that the President’s intention to get all projects completed did inspire the revisit to the dam which was beneficial to the people.
She said the President was earnestly embarking on projects which would improve the living standard of the people.
The minister said the Federal Government would partner with the State Government towards full utilisation of the dam.
She called on the State Government to ensure that the water was well treated and reticulated before distribution to the community during the second and third phases of the project.
“We believe that after completing the first phase of the project, the FG will continually work with the State Government, in order to make potable water available to the people,” she said.
NEWS24

Wife of the Governor of the State of Osun , Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola will flag off today, a 4-day Oral Polio lmmunization exercise for infants between the age of 0 to 59 months.
Venue is  Atelewo Health Centre at  Old  Panapana in Osogbo local Goverment Area.
This information is contained in  a press Statement issued by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs.)Temitope Ilori.
The statement revealed that all Executive Secretaries ,top government functionaries including market women and nursing mothers are expected at the flag off ceremony.

Dr. Amiel Fagbulu, 80, who was part of the Federal Government’s arrangement to take over schools in 1975 has said that the arrival of a new child should ordinarily be a thing of joy not only for the lucky parents but also for those around who love them and know the hazards and hardships of child-bearing.
Fagbulu who wrote this piece on the launch of Baptist Central Elementary School, Ilare, Ile-ife said those who know what it means for a child to learn in a pleasant environment cannot but rejoice with those state governments that are providing first-class physical facilities for the children to learn in.
He said that most people take for granted the fact that governments are only doing what they need to do by providing functional, spacious and convenient facilities for the children in schools, adding, “they hardly pause to think of the extreme cost of those facilities and the juggling of budgets that has to be done to meet other needs of parents for good roads, health centres, safe drinking water, and to some extent, work.
According to him, those governments that are shunning cheaper, less safe and effective school structures and are at the same time increasing the number of children going to school are not unaware of the need to ‘feed and clothe’ these children who need to be attended to properly
. It is a heroic act and one of great commitment for anyone to take up the expensive challenge of putting up many purpose-built learning institutions across a state as large as Osun, and providing at the same time food, uniform and instructional materials that are delivered at the cutting edge of technology.
“Fortunately,” he continued, “these children have no reason to yell now because they are provided with almost everything that they need to enjoy while schooling, learning and securing their future. The quality and quantity of teachers have been assured; parents have also been relieved of the burden of paying for a thousand and one things for their children’s education; and children have not had it so good in Nigeria since independence. They should therefore guard what they have been given on a platter of gold, jealously.”
Comparing the situation of schools decades ago to what it is in Osun now, Fagbulu said: “I taught at the Government College, Ibadan. I was Principal of Edo College, Benin City. As an inspector, I visited educational institutions from Warri to Ilaro. As a Chief Inspector, I knew intimately all secondary schools in the old Western Region. Above all, I was part of the Aiyetoro Comprehensive High School dream. I feel qualified therefore to say that the standard of the provisions being made systematically for children of the State of Osun match and in some respects, surpass what those schools of the past that have become legends had.”

Photos from the Courtesy Visit of the Zonal Director South West, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to the Governor in Osogbo on Tuesday

From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor,
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; and Zonal Director South West, National Directorate
of Employment (NDE), Mr Ola Martins, during a Courtesy Visit to the
Governor in Osogbo on Tuesday

From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor,
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; and Zonal Director South West, National Directorate
of Employment (NDE), Mr Ola Martins, during a Courtesy Visit to the
Governor in Osogbo on Tuesday

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (3rd left); his Deputy, Mrs
Titi Laoye-Tomori (2nd left); Zonal Director South West, National
Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mr Ola Martins (3rd left); State
Coordinator NDE, Mr Sola Daramola (2nd right); Deputy Director South West
NDE, Mr Omiwale Taiwo (right), during a Courtesy Visit to the Governor in
Osogbo on Tuesday

The Osun State Government has ordered the reopening of the Ansar Ud Deen High School, Osogbo, for full academic activities.
The government gave the directive in a statement made available to newsmen in Osogbo. The statement, signed by the Permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Education, Mr. Lawrence Oyeniran, said that the school should re-open yestetday.
The school, located on the Resting Ground, Osogbo, was shut by the government on December 17, 2013, following an uprising by its students. The statement advised parents and guardians to guard against unwholesome behaviour by their children and wards.
“Any student of the school who fails to conduct himself or herself within the established school rules and regulations will be disciplined.’’
NIGERIAN OBSERVER

Osun State Governor Mr. Rauf Aregbesola said his administration has expended N14.8 billion on the construction of new schools in the state.
The governor made the disclosure while commissioning the Baptist Elementary Primary School, Ilare, Ile-Ife.
He said the sum of N1.2 billion was spent on the purchase of books which were distributed to public senior secondary schools in the state, free of charge.
Governor Aregbesola said government was committed to the development of young individuals in the state, adding it would continue to invest in the education sector.
He urged people of the state to support the new education policy of his administration, saying “the future of our children should be paramount.”
He stated that the hallmark of the new education policy in the state was an enhancement of better welfare for both the teachers and students of all public schools in the state, adding that “we have resolved to make our public schools better than the private ones.”
DAILY TRUST

Osun State government has expressed its readiness to make people at the grassroots level actively contribute to the decision-making and development projects through Community Information Board (CIB).
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, who doubles as Vice Chairman, State Planning Commission (SPC) made the remarks at a two-day training workshop on the use of Community Information Board organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Osun State Government in collaboration with UNICEF, held in Osogbo.
Adeoti, who stressed the importance of collection of data for the benefit of the communities said that it is imperative to organise the workshop in order to train the NOA officers, key community operators and local government officers on the implementation of CIB.
He added that the information and data collected from the CIB would be used for community development.
According to him: “It is imperative to organise this workshop in order to train the NOA officers, key community operators and local government officers on the implementation of community information board. This will enable them to use information for community development and to enhance communication for analytical reports and collection of data from identified data sources to the benefits of their communities.”
Adeoti added that the workshop would build the capacities of the  participants for systematic monitoring, documentation and to make use of information to bring about social change at community level and to get what they need to improve their own lives through the use of community dialogue.
Earlier, the state director of NOA, Mr Remi Omowon said that the workshop was necessary and designed to afford all participants the opportunity to be trained on skills for information gathering in their localities and also acquire knowledge on how to make use of information for community for development to demand for their needs from policy makers.
Omowon added that the workshop would make the stakeholders to understand the need for the CIB as a tool for close monitoring of the well-being of children and women by communities and for them to know what action to take against negative trends and sustain positive ones.
TRIBUNE

Barely three days after the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola bagged the 2013 man of the Year of one of the leading national dailies, Daily Independent, another laurel has come the way of state as its innovative Islamic bond, Sukuk earned bagged the Islamic Financial News Deal of the Year Award in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates Monday night.
It was an evening of honour for Osun and Lotus Capital, the issuing house that handled the Sukuk deal for the state as the Managing Director of IFN, Mr. Andrew Morgan, presented the award to the team from Nigeria.
Andrew Morgan, who is also the Publisher of the RedMoney Group, presented the award to the Nigerian team which comprised Osun Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro;  who represented Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Mrs. Hajara Adeola, the MD Lotus Capital Limited;  Mrs Taba Peterside , the General Manager and Head Listing Sales and retention of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Dele Oladunjoye of Kola Awodein and Co., solicitor to the Sukuk deal and Alhaja Lateefat Okunnu, Director Lotus Capital Limited.
Speaking Monday evening, Bolorunduro attributed the award to Governor Aregbesola’s penchant for exploring new ways to solve problems.
“Kudos should go to Ogbeni Aregbesola for this award. His three years in office have shown that here is a man who stops at nothing to embrace novel ideas as long as those ideas further he interests of the common man. The state has provided the platform for Lotus Capital to prove that this can be done. We are grateful for this recognition,” said Bolorunduro.
The State of Osun is not only reaping a bumper harvest but also getting international recognition, rewards and laurels for the pioneer achievements being recorded by its government. For breaking new grounds and introducing new ideas in governance, the sky appears to be the beginning for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s government. After deep, thorough and adroit thinking, the government arrived at a viable alternative of fund sourcing for the development of the state’s comatose infrastructural facilities.
Aregbesola found a more convenient source of fund in the Islamic-oriented bond system (popularly called Sukuk), specifically meant for part funding re-construction of the state’s educational infrastructure. Thus, in November   2013, Osun set another record of being the first state in Nigeria to go for the Islamic bond (sukuk).
Besides, the successful completion of this bond issuance also made such transaction the first in the West African sub-region.
The good news is that less than three months after this novel deal, Osun Sukuk and the leading issuing house, Lotus Capital Limited, had been nominated for an international Award. It was gathered that Lotus Capital Limited was singled out for having successfully pioneered the Osun sukuk, a maiden sukuk issue in the country. The globally recognised Islamic Finance News (IFN) last month nominated the N11.4billion Osun Sukuk as the African deal of the year 2013, and  Lotus Capital, being the issuing house of the Sukuk, is being recognised for the unprecedented transaction.
The award came on the heels of the leading role Lotus Capital played alongside forty two (42) other issuing houses in Nigeria in the successful completion of the Osun Sukuk. With this nomination, Lotus Capital, a pioneer Islamic finance organisation in Nigeria, which specialises in handling equitable  interest-free financial services (popularly known as Islamic Finance), has been invited   by IFN to receive the 2013 edition of the global award.
The grand finale takes place at the Ritz Carlton (DFIC) Dubai, United Arab Emirates on February 24, 2014.
Lotus Capital Limited was established in June 2004 and registered with the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission as fund managers, Corporate Investment Advisers and Issuing Houses.
It has as head the former Managing Director of Guarantee Trust Bank(GTB), Mr. Fola Adeola.
Going by world financial record, Lotus, which successfully introduced and completed Osun Sukuk, is now adjudged as one of the world’s fastest growing financial organisations with over 200 billion US dollars in assets across the world.
Again, the company is said to be growing at an annual rate of 20 per cent. Some of the company’s directors and management members expected to lead the team going to receive the award in Dubai include Mrs. Lateefat Okunnu, Mr. Muhammad Nuruddeen Lemu, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola and the company’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Hajara Adeola.
Representing the Executive Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, the Commissioner for Finance, accompanied by the Acting Director General of Osun Debt Management Office, Mr. Tunde Adejumo.
It will be recalled Osun, under its N60billion bond issuance programme, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commisison (SEC) in 2012,  went for the N14. 4 billion Sukuk (14. 75 per cent) fixed return in November 2014. The maiden Sukuk which was oversubscribed has on record forty two (42) investors, cutting across a blend of corporate, institutional as well as High networth investors, under the auspices of Lotus Capital Limited as the leading issuing house and Augusto and Co, one of Nigeria’s rating agencies, as the rating agent.
The Sukuk was issued in accordance with the Osun State Bonds, Notes and Other Securities Law 2012. A special purpose Vehicle company – Osun Sukuk Company Plc, a duly registered public liability company anchored the issue.
While authorising and approving the offer at the Company’s board meeting in November last year, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said his government embraces Capital market funding for most of its infrastructure development projects (such as the building of new schools and renovation of some old one, road constructions, healthcare services, commercial infrastructure) given its associated benefits such as lower cost, and stability of interest rate over the transaction tenor.
He appealed to the people to see the bond option as an avenue to attract development to the state for the benefit of all and sundry. According to the governor, “The Sukuk is a veritable avenue for us to access capital to develop our state and it will be used to finance building of schools across the state”.
The Governor re-affirmed that his administration is passionate about the welfare of the people as well as tangible development in the state state. He further remarked that ” the paucity of funds accruable and so available to the state can do little of the developmental agenda of the current administration”.  Corroborating the Governor, the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, maintained during the completion meeting on the issue (held last year November),  that “raising fund under the  current financial condition in the country  is like drinking water from fire-hose, the changes in the market are too rapid, but Osun in its characteristic innovative financing has been doing it.” Bolorunduro  reiterated that “the over subscription of Osun sukuk is a positive confirmation of the trust and confidence, the market placed on Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who has brought prudence, purpose and performance to government”.
The chairperson of Lotus Capital, Mrs. Hajara Adeola, also while reacting to the successful completion  and over-subscription of the issue noted that the sukuk’s success represented a clear vote of confidence in Governor Aregbesola’s administration, the State of Osun and its people.
Adeola said that the governor had become unique for his penchant for exploring novel ways of doing things, adding that the sukuk represented another instance of Aregbesola’s exploring new ways of seeking for the development of the state.
Since the successful issue of Osun Sukuk, states’ governments  and Federal Government of Nigeria have been looking at the direction of Sukuk as an alternative of funding their capital projects.
To Aregbesola, it is a bumper harvest of award for excellence and innovations. Just last Friday, Aregbesola’s penchant for exploring alternative perspectives towards achieving growth earned him a noble award – the Daily Independent’s Man of the Year Award. The national newspaper premised it’s decision to award Aregbesola on what it called symbol of alternative perspectives.
Obviously, Lotus Capital Limited has won the award, but the fact is not lost on the company that the state offered itself as the platform upon which Lotus rose to this enviable height.

The state government of Osun has nominated a former Chief of General Staff during the military era and elder statesman Gen Alani Akinrinade, former Speaker of the House of Assembly in the State, Prof Mojeed Alabi and four others to represent the state at the national conference being organised by the Federal Government.
Others on the list of nominees are a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Mr. Femi Akande, former Commissioner for Justice in the State,  Chief Gbadegesin Adedeji, Director General Development Agenda for Western Nigerian Commission Mr. Dipo Famakinwa and Mrs. Bola Ogunrinade (mni).
The Deputy Governor of the state Mrs Grace Titi Laoye Tomori acting on the directive of the Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had forwarded a letter to the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation Chief Anyim Pius Anyim.

Markets play critical role in economic life of Nigerians, especially for those in the rural areas. This is why the Osun State government is constructing markets across the state for the people.
The state has said the multi-million naira Ayegbaju International Market being constructed by the administration will soon be commissioned.
Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, stated this while speaking at a one- day sensitisation workshop on the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for stakeholders in the state.
Aregbesola, represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, said the state government has concluded arrangement to commission the multi-million naira Osogbo Ayegbaju International market for use of the traders.
He stated further that the government would also empower women of the state with N600 million in the next few weeks.
He maintained that the government has worked out modalities with micro finance banks to disburse the loan to the beneficiaries of the government gesture.
The governor, who urged the people, especially women, to maximise the opportunity of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s loan, described them as a major factor in the economic development of the state, promising that the state was ready to maximise the apex bank loan for development of the state and its citizenry.
Aregbesola stated that when the present administration came on board in November 2010, the gross Domestic product (GDP) of the state was $5 billion, which it has increased into over $9billion in 2013.
He flayed the critics of his administration, saying that the state is now the seventh largest economy in the federation going by the Federal Government data on GDP, adding that the opposition parties in the state lack knowledge about the economic development of the state.
He reiterated that no fewer than 200,000 people would benefit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s gesture in collaboration with the state government, noting that Osun State government would provide counterpart fund in order to increase the number of beneficiaries to 400,000.
He stressed that the state government would provide bank guarantee for the cooperative socities in the state that show interest to access the fund.
The branch controller of the CBN, Mr. Macduff Okorode Efetabore, while speaking, explained the reason why the apex bank initiated the fund, saying it was to develop the economic status of over two million Nigeria citizens, particularly 60 per cent of women entrepreneurs in the period of ten years.
He said that the main objective of the fund was to provide, low interest fund the to Nigerian economy through participating financial institutions.
CBN boss also stated that the management team of the bank recognised the strategic position of state governments to the Nigerian citizens at the grassroots, thereby making them important stakeholders in the administration of the fund. He added that CBN has developed operational guidelines for the state government participation in the MSME development fund.
Effetabore maintained, “The MSMED fund has two broad objectives, which are social and commercial. The social/development fund shall constitute 10 per cent, broken down as follows: grants per cent, interest drawback three per cent, managing agents’ operations cost two per cent, adding that the commercial fund shall constitute 90 per cent of the fund as follows; wholesale funding-90 per cent of the commercial component and guarantees/refinancing-10 per cent of the commercial component.
“Considering the peculiar challenges faced by women in accessing financial services in Nigeria, the revised micro-finance policy, regulatory and supervisory framework in section 4.2 (1V) provides that women’s access to financial services should increase by 15 per cent annually in order to eliminate gender disparity. In order to achieve this, sixty 60 per cent, which is N132.00 billion of the fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women.
“In operating the fund, special consideration shall also be given to institutions that will provide financial services to graduates of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs)”.
DAILY INDEPENDENT