Ogun State Ministry of Information and Strategy says it has taken advantage of the new media (social platforms) alongside the production of a State owned weekly newspaper, the Nigeria Gateway to further sensitize the populace on government’s policies and programmes.

This, it noted was meant to ensure effective coverage and reportage of all government’s programmes and activities to the people of the State to elicit necessary feedbacks from them.

The Commissioner, Hon Abdul-Waheed Odusile, disclosed this while appearing before the members of the State House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation to defend the 2022 budget estimate of his Ministry at the Assembly Complex, Oke-mosan, Abeokuta.

Odusile, who defended a total budget estimate of N601m for the next fiscal year, said the initiative taken on the adoption of social media was meant to further propagate government policies to the nooks and crannies of the State and thereby help reposition the State by re-awakening the people towards embracing its core values.

According to him, the Ministry was set to put in place a 24-hour Feedback Unit to get proper and extensive information from the populace to aid two-way communication channel between the government and the governed.

He further underscored the need to ensure the immediate upgrade of equipment and other infrastructure at State owned media houses -the State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC) and the State Television (OGTV) as well as the State Printing Corporation to aid their performance.

In another development, the State Ministry of Transportation has stated that it would operationalise key road infrastructure investments and develop inter-city and intra-city mass transit schemes within the State in the next fiscal year to promote safe, efficient and affordable transport system for all the citizens and visitors to the State.

The State Commissioner for Transport, Engr. Gbenga Dairo, who disclosed this while taking his turn to defend the budget proposal of the Ministry before the State lawmakers, explained that government was set to attract investments towards rail access developments associated with Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail corridor.

Engr. Dairo while defending his Ministry’s total budget estimate of N861m for next year, said out of the total, the sum of N512m was being earmarked for capital expenditure, while recurrent which included personnel and overhead would take N349m.

Other agencies that defended their budget estimates before the lawmakers included the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, State Synage and Advertising Agency, Bureau of ICT, State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps ( TRACE) State Printing Corporation, State Broadcasting Corporation and State Television, State Independent Electoral Commission as well as Parks and Garages Development Agency amongst others.