Committee for the 2017 States Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards will on July 13, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, unveil the winners of this year’s good governance awards. Red carpet will open by 6pm.
Just like in previous editions, the modus operandi of the 2017 edition will not be different, as awards will be won in different categories but the most coveted is the Governor of the Year Award.
Other awards categories are the state with the most improve housing development programmes; state most improved in educational development; best state promoting made in Nigerian goods; state with the most improved security; most improved in ICT/Technology, and state most improved in sports development and tourism.
Others are fastest growing state economy; state most improved in ease of doing business; the state most transparent in governance; state most improved in rural and urban infrastructure development; most improved in healthcare service delivery and agricultural development.
The state best promoting made-in-Nigeria goods is a new award category introduced by the 2017 Committee to encourage Nigerian states and institutions to promote the utilisation of domestic resources. It will be recalled that, Nigeria’s over reliance on imported goods and materials caused the nation so much pains when foreign exchange became scarce following the crash in crude oil prices at the international market. The pains came in the forms of foreign exchange volatility, mass sack by private firms and factory closures.
To reduce Nigeria’s susceptibility to the vagaries of global business and economic cycles, some governors have introduced a number of programs geared towards boosting the capacity of the local entrepreneurs who should be able to meet the needs of the domestic market as well as tap into the international market.
For all the award categories, a mix of qualitative and quantitative parameters was employed. Visitations to states in order to see the projects executed, interactions with the locals and interviews with governments’ officials, among others, constituted the qualitative parameters. Visitations to states provided on the spot assessment opportunities for the Award Committee. On the other hand, interactions with the locals who are indigenes of those states allowed the Committee to know the extent to which executed projects benefit the communities where they are situated.
The quantitative parameters include kilometres of road constructed, number of housing units built, number of schools, hospitals and primary healthcare centres(PHC) rehabilitated, detailed publication on the execution of budgets especially as it relates to the awards of contracts, contractors’ names and projects awarded, budget performance among others.
In addition, the Award Committee was able to understand the cost benefit rationale behind each project. In other words, the Committee was able to understand the reason for the choice of a particular project over others and how resources were allocated towards its completion.
Debuted in 2013, States Competitiveness and Good Governance Award was introduced to engender competition amongst state governments in Nigeria so that Nigerians can get the real dividend of democracy. The Award Committee works in partnership with BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU).
TELIAT SULE
