Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Economy   >   Osun requires N221 billion for Urban Renewal –Aregbesola

Osun requires N221 billion for Urban Renewal –Aregbesola

By on September 5, 2012

Governor Aregbesola

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has said the state requires over $1.4bn (N220bn) to rebuild houses in major towns and cities in line with his administration’s urban renewal programme.

The governor, while speaking at the UN-Habitat organised World Urban Forum’s Roundtable of Mayors in Naples, Italy, stressed that his administration had discovered that more than 38,000 buildings in the state had either become dilapidated or were fast deteriorating.

Aregbesola, who was represented by the Commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Olumuyiwa Ige, said when the administration came into office in November 2010, it undertook an assessment of the condition of urban centres in the state and discovered that not only could the centres not sustain their present populations, they were in no shape to accommodate the future.

He said it had been discovered that a significant shift in the economic pattern had affected the cities negatively, adding that the cities were built with the wealth realised from the exportation of cash crops.

According to the governor, when the commodities economy collapsed, the structures built from the wealth suffered neglect with most decaying, while others were collapsing.

“This situation, therefore, requires leadership and exceptional governance capabilities. The urgent task before us is to renew the urban centres, upgrade the slums and build future cities, while ensuring good governance,” Aregbesola said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria