BUSINESS: Entrepreneur Wants Govt To Partner Indigenous Producers

By Solomon Odeniyi

THE Proprietor, One Community One Industry Initiative (OICI), MrsVictoria Oluwaseun has implored the Government of Osun State to collaborate with indigenous manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the state in order to boost the economy.

Oluwaseun who stated this while speaking with OSUN DEFENDER on Monday said empowering the indigenous manufacturers and entrepreneurs will go a long way to improve the economy of the state and ensure a increase in the Internally Generated Revenue of the state.

One Community, One Industry is an initiative that depends and explores comparative advantage of a product readily available in any community and deal in conversion of agricultural waste products to wealth creation.

It also trains and empowers residents in black soap production, coconut oil processing, locust beans processing as well as packaging and snail farming among others to become entrepreneurs and create a new economy for the people.

The initiative also has a ‘Catch Them Young’ agro-preneurship concept and has collaborated with many communities, higher institutions, secondary schools, primary schools, organizations and churches to train not less than 20,000 people across the state.

Oluwaseun said the development of indigenous manufacturing industries like OICI would portray the state to the world as a place business could thrive.

She said, “Indigenous manufacturers source for their materials and produce their products in the state, but many of us lack the needed resources.

“If the government can collaborate with us by giving us the needed supports, the local manufacturing businesses will thrive and the investments the state government seeks from outside the state and country will naturally come.”

Beside the partnership with local producers, she added that both government and people should patronise local contents, saying this would benefit the economy more.

On her initiative, she said, “what we have been doing is to look at resources that we have in our environment such as plantain stuck, coconut shell, cocoa pod,  and palm kernel wastes among others to make black soap and package it to international standard.

“These things can give us a lot of money and create job opportunities if it is well done because we don’t need so much money to start the business.

“We also look at what we used to have in our environment that we do not have anymore, like the coconut oil which has been replaced with Palm kernel oil. We are not only bringing them back, we are modernisingit without being adulterated and package it to international taste.

“Because of the value addition and packaging, as well as the health benefits in our products, people now take then outside the country.”