Ondo State seeks partnership in state-owned electricity market

The Ondo State Investment Summit will serve as opportunity to attract investors to explore the untapped natural resources, electricity market, solid minerals, and the state deep seaport.

Ondo State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Engineer Razaq Obe, made this known on Wednesday during a press conference in the state capital at the Develop Ondo Investment Summit.

However, it was gathered that the Develop Ondo Investment Summit tagged: “Develop Ondo 2.0,” would be declared open by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,  and would assemble captains of industry at The Dome, Alagbaka, Akure, to interface on the theme: “Developing Possibilities” from July 24 to July 26, 2023.

With this in view,the state government is eager to partner with investors in building the deep seaport, for which they have obtained a license to build and operate.

According to him, the state is targeting investors who would explore the untapped natural resources in the state. Also, the state government is committed to generating and distributing its own electricity to benefit the citizens of the state.

He also mentioned that investors will be offered the opportunity to exploit the new electricity act recently assented to by President Bola Tinubu, which grants states the right to generate and distribute power for their development.

He said, “With a focus on the blue economy, energy, and gas, the summit presents an array of investment opportunities across various sectors.

“The government has already divided the state into different clusters based on their power demands and is planning to engage more investors in the sector.

“We have already provided power supply to some communities through solar mini-grids and will be allocating the mapped-out cluster to off-takers to invest based on the magnitude of power they will generate and the demands in such areas.

“There’s no doubt, power is a major contributory factor to industrialisation, we are not relenting on ensuring improvement on power supply across the state.

“We will present an array of investment opportunities across various sectors. From agriculture to manufacturing, tourism to technology, renewable energy to infrastructural development.

“Ondo State is blessed with abundant natural resources, including vast arable land for agriculture, solid minerals, and a significant coastline for maritime activities and tourism.

“We encourage potential investors to explore these sectors which hold immense opportunities for sustainable development, employment generation, and wealth creation,” he said.