By Emeka Anokwuru
The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, will tomorrow, Friday, July16, 2021, lead dignitaries, including the Governor of Osun State, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, to officially launch Ife Grand Resort & Industrial Park in Ile-Ife. Comrade Moses Olafare, the king’s director of Media and Public Affairs, said in a statement that the Grand Resort, located beside the tollgate on the Ife-Ibadan expressway, is a brand new city of hubs driven by urban renewal initiatives of the Ooni Ogunwusi to serve as the hub for sustainable development, fountain of employment generation, radar of empowerment and satellite for branding and showcasing the cultural heritage and value of Ile-Ife the source and natural headquarters of the Oduduwa race globally.
He affirmed the huge investment as a legacy project embarked upon by Ooni Ogunwusi for urban renewal and redevelopment into the current smart city global requirements in the selfless spirit of ‘Charity Begins At Home’ The Ife Grand Resort and Leisure which is planted on over 1000 acres of land will aside from offering facilities for exquisite lodging/accommodation, harbour multiple industrial parks with pockets of industries currently producing many industrial and agricultural products as well as rendering essential services to the resort, the Ife community and Nigeria. Sitting comfortably within the Ife Grand Resort which is a focal attraction on Friday is the 3000 seating capacity Meeting, Incentives, Conference and Events(MICE) Centre branded ‘Ojaja Arena’, a complex of architectural wonder planted to add value to urban renewal in Ile – Ife. Ooni Ogunwusi disclosed that he deliberately brought the 3000 seating capacity event centre to make Ile-Ife the epicentre of MICE in Africa, saying that the ‘Ojaja Arena’ has been configured and positioned with all facilities to satisfy demands of MICE adding that it would also shore up intellectual and congregational activities in Ile Ife, the ancient source of mankind.
“We are building a brand new city driven by urban renewal initiative. The Ojaja Arena is basically not built for social activities but a centre for training and manpower development for youths in this country, considering Ile-Ife to have over 500 thousand students of about 20 tertiary institutions; Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Schools of Nursing within 100 km radius surrounding the Obafemi Awolowo University built at the nucleus centre in Ife over 60 years ago.
The question on my lips has been, what will these young vibrant youths be doing after tertiary education, the best bet is to set up a hub that is technology friendly to boost and drive small and medium scale industries within our country by creating a smart city for them to display whatever they can do to become employers of labour after graduation. It is a sad truth that there are no industries to employ them all. We can only encourage them to create industries for and by themselves because that is the reality on ground”. Ooni said. “One of the industrial parks within the Ife Grand Resort Colony, the Adire hub has engaged 50 people, empowered over 150 others and started producing Adire in bales which are being exported to foreign countries He also disclosed that one of the agricultural parks which specializes in rearing of Ostriches has also employed another set of 40 staff who have started rearing Ostriches in an unprecedented manner with the vision to produce ostrich hides and skin in high commercial quantity for export purposes.
He also revealed that the various industrial parks have started receiving collaboration and acknowledgement from Africans in Diaspora who are willing and ready to train and empower interested individuals in various segments of the park.”We have received pledges for training and exchange programs between the Brazilian, Cuban and other governments in the Carribians towards the empowerment of Nigerian youths for post- Covid-19 empowerment action plan.”
“What we’re doing is to replicate this, we have already commenced in Ondo, Oyo and Lagos states and we shall be launching these projects concurrently. It is a means of creating an avenue for our young minds to see Nigeria from a positive perspective, so we’re creating a country from a country.” Then the sporting arena is another industry that is huge, we would have a minicamp for training and development in the sporting world. We are going to have an 18-hole Golf Course.” Ooni said.