Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the newly sworn-in Governor of Enugu State, has promised that the government will make provision for a Tier IV Hyper Scale Data Centre, in the Coal City.
He made the promise during his inaugural speech at Okpara Square, Independence Layout, Enugu on Monday, May 29 as part of activities for his swearing-in ceremony as the Executive Governor of the State.
The Governor said the Tier IV data centre is meant to attract hyper-scale businesses like Amazon, Google, Netflix, Tik Tok and Microsoft to the State.
A Tier IV data center is usually built to be completely fault tolerant and has redundancy for every component. It has an expected uptime of 99.995% (26.3 minutes of downtime annually).
ICT
“In the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), we will provide a Tier 4 Hyper Scale Data Centre to attract hyper-scale businesses like Amazon, Google, Netflix, Tik Tok and Microsoft.
Creative Industry
“Our creative industry will be lifted from its old glory and be positioned as driver of our developmental dream. We will set up a film village and, working with stakeholders in the industry, ensure that our state becomes the destination of choice for tourists, attracting not less than 3 million visitors each year,” Peter Mbah said.
Sports
The sporting sector will transmute under us from a solely recreation sector into a revenue earner. We will invest highly in it with an eye on returns into the Enugu economy.
“We also have robust, cross-cutting programmes in the social services sector. Education, for us, is a key driver of our developmental effort. Our intervention will boost the access to and understanding of ICT in our early child learning and schools. We will increase the focus on vocational education in our secondary schools, while reemphasizing civic and moral values.
Healthcare Sector
“In the healthcare sector, our aim is to ensure that rural, semi-rural and urban Ndi Enugu have access to primary healthcare facilities, without any hindrance. We will partner with private investors in building specialist hospitals, so as to attract Nigerians who fly outside the country on health tourism. Our objective here would be to make Enugu a medical tourism destination”.
Speaking further, especially on social amenities, Dr. Mbah said, “In the area of water, Ndi Enugu are aware of our promise to ensure availability of water in our homes in the Enugu metropolis in 180 days time. We reiterate this promise here. Furthermore, we will waste no time in replicating same feat in Nsukka, Udi and Awgu axis.
Sanitation and hygiene
“Sanitation and hygiene are also areas where this administration wants to pluck its low-hanging fruits. In the next 100 days, our administration will ensure that our streets are cleared of refuse. We will also ensure that existing landfill sites are relocated and further ensure that they are harnessed for wealth creation. Urban renewal is key to us as an administration.
Urban Renewal
“We will pursue an infrastructural revolution in Enugu State by turning our state into one huge construction site. We will prioritize road construction and infrastructural renewal ensuring that our roads are well paved. Where necessary we shall construct flyovers and dualise roads as a remedy to any gridlocks.
“We shall run an inclusive government designed to accommodate all citizens of Enugu State.
Transportation
“Our transportation blueprint is comprehensive and holistic. We will have a multi-modal transportation system, a monorail to connect cities in Enugu and even go a step further by partnering with other governments in the Southeast in connecting us with our sister states.
Justice and Public Service
“We are committed to the strengthening of our institutions. The judiciary, legislature and public services will receive the needed propellers as lifters of our dream. We will provide the right enablement to ensure justice is dispensed as speedily as possible. In this regard, we will digitize and digitalize the judiciary, so as to make the management and procedures in our courts more efficient.
Insecurity
“Our approach to tackling insecurity in Enugu State will be by adopting the kinetic and non-kinetic models and approaches. We will strengthen community policing architecture; neighbourhood watch and forest guards.
In this mode, we will deploy modern technology such as CCTV cameras and others, as well as establishing a command-and-control centre in Enugu State, so as to track perpetrators of crime who we will pursue and bring to justice.
The most logical question that must be playing in corners of your lips as you listen to me is, how do we source the funds to jumpstart this massive governmental ambition?
“We have critically studied different financing models, a number of which we will deploy. The first, as I have earlier itemized, is that we will open Enugu State up for the influx of investments and investors. Our ambition is to have our state as the corridor where the private sector migrates and plays. We will strengthen internally generated revenue, not by increasing tax rate arbitrarily but by expanding the tax net, plugging loopholes of leakages, as well as by operating a lean and agile government.
“We will also, within our first 100 days in office, convene a Diaspora and Investors Forum where we will market all the productivity sectors in the state through showcasing our huge investment potentials.
“Our government will also organize what is called the Diaspora Bond where we will securitize remittances from abroad. In this regard, remittances will no longer be for consumption alone but for production. Government will create a platform for securing those remittances so the investors have security for their funds.
The governance philosophy of our administration will be based on transparency, accountability and fund traceability. Part of this philosophy is collaboration and partnership with CSOs and the private sector.
“To demonstrate how persuaded we are about doing this, as I leave here now, I will head for the office to perform my first executive task as your governor. That task will be to sign Executive Order 001.
It is called the Citizens’ Charter. It demands that we manage your money, the people’s money, in the people’s interest. This Charter holds me and members of my team to account on your funds. The Citizens’ Charter mandates us to provide detailed information on our public financial management system, report our revenue to you in detail and ensure that we adequately capture our expenditure. The Charter demands, in the same vein, that our expenditure is consistent with government priorities.
“In line with the Public Financial Management (PFM) system, we will also ensure implementation of programmes and projects that deliver value for our money, factoring due process and public procurement laws into them”, Mbah said.
Earlier, the governor said, his administration in Enugu State will retool and re-energize the agriculture/agro-allied sector.
“We will unlock our rural economy through the implementation of Special Economic Zones and Special Agro-allied Processing Zones. The commerce and industry sector will help us to kick-start this drive. We also plan to provide a N100 billion revolving fund for our SMEs in partnership with the Private Sector and other Development Financial Institutions”.
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