Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has been described as a visionary leader who cares and empathises with the people, especially the poor and vulnerable.
According to the Ogun State Head of Service, Mr. Kehinde Onasanya, this was what led to the implementation of OGUN-CARES programme as a channel of giving support to the vulnerable in the State.
Mr. Kehinde Onasanya made this known, during the closing ceremony of a ‘3-Day OG-CARES Training and Strengthening Capacity of Staff across Delivery Platforms 2025, at Governor’s office, Abeokuta, in readiness for the take-off of the second phase of OGUN-CARES project.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Special Duties, Mr. Lateef Benson, the Head of Service expressed optimism that more people would be positively affected in the second phase, judging by the success recorded in the first phase.
He charged participants to take the second phase more seriously in a way that would improve the living standard of peasant farmers, small business owners and better learning condition for students.
The Vice-Chairman, State CARES Coordinating Unit, Mr. Olaolu Olabimtan, who doubles as the State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, applauded the participants for the success of the first phase and urged them to imbibe lessons learnt at the training in the execution of the second phase for better productivity, saying there was always room for improvement.
“Let this training affect you positively as you move to the next phase of this project. If the initial one had failed we would not be talking about 2.0. Don’t let this training workshop be a wasted investment. Let’s do more to serve the people better,” he charged
Speaking, the State Auditor General, Mr. Lateef Balogun, said the training was a way of reminding the people about what was known before, hence the training was meant to re-energise the participants to judiciously utilise the resources entrusted to them to serve the populace.
He chronicled the level of impact the project had scored in the lives of the beneficiaries as support was given to poor households, agricultural value-chains to ensure food security, and recovery of small and medium enterprises affected by COVID-19; revealing that over 150,000 beneficiaries were already impacted in the areas of health, education, micro-projects, Nano small businesses, across the State.
The SSA to Governor and the Head, State CARES Coordinating Unit, Mr. Bayo Adenekan, disclosed that State Operations Coordinating Office (SOCU) had been added as another Delivery Platform to undertake Disbursement Linked Indicators 4.1 and 4.2, assuring participants that more trainings are in the pipeline for all staff and those who distinguish themselves would be rewarded, as government of Prince Dapo Abiodun already approved additional funding of $12 million dollars in the next 3 years and an action plan to strengthen capacity of staff involved in OG-CARES 2.0
Participants at the training event includes; project officers, members of Steering committee, the Coordinating Unit and other civil servants who benefitted from the workshop.
