The Ogun State Commissioner for Forestry, Taiwo Oludotun, has disclosed that the current administration has efficiently revamped all nine forest reserves within the state and planted over 5 million trees protecting about 500 hectares inside the final six years.
Oludotun acknowledged this whereas defending the Ministry of Forestry’s finances on the Treasury Board Assembly on the 2026–2028 Medium Time period Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the 2026 finances, held on the Obas Complicated, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, on Thursday.
He famous that the forest reserves had grow to be moribund earlier than his appointment as Commissioner, including that the Ministry adopted strategic partnerships with worldwide corporations by leasing parts of forest land to plant trees, which later served as uncooked supplies for his or her manufacturing processes.
Based on him, the Ministry additionally cultivated over three million trees independently to make sure sustainability, emphasizing that tree planting is a long-term funding, which defined why the Ministry was typically undervalued by way of efficiency evaluation.
The Commissioner lamented that some cocoa farmers had deliberately destroyed tree plantations in a bid to broaden their cultivation areas, stressing that it’s collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture to curb such actions.
Oludotun additional acknowledged that the Ministry requires the proposed finances to acquire extra equipment to strengthen its activity power operations and curb unlawful actions inside the forest reserves.
In his response, the Chief Financial Adviser to the Governor and Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Okubadejo, described the forestry sector as one of many state’s main pure endowments, providing a big aggressive benefit.
He suggested that the sector shouldn’t be considered merely as a supply of uncooked supplies for the furnishings trade however must also discover different alternatives equivalent to sustainable cultivation and wildlife conservation, that are areas that might appeal to international donors and traders.
Okubadejo urged the Ministry to dam income leakages and undertake cashless insurance policies to spice up the state’s internally generated income.
