Date: 2016-08-03

Over 20,000 businesses have been enlisted on the platform of Kwara Live Project as a way of stimulating the economic growth in Kwara State.

The project is the brainchild of Visual Global Impression (VGI), an Ilorin-based business directory platform. Speaking at a ministerial briefing convened by the state Ministry of Information and Communications in Ilorin yesterday, Chief Executive Officer of VGI, Mr Job Amosun, said the rationale behind the initiative was to make business grow faster.

He explained that the platform was also created to bring about synergy between buyers and sellers. Amosun, who highlighted numerous advantages embedded in the platform, said it saves cost and also provides employment opportunities for teeming jobless youths.

He said the business directories had proven to be effective and widened scope of business environment in the state. The chief executive of VGI challenged the business community and artisans in Kwara to leverage on the advantage provided by the platform to enhance their operations and business activities.

Amosun, who stated that the directory is operated through internet facilities, also unveiled the hard copy of the business directory and urged Kwarans to key into it. He also announced that app version of the Kwara Live Project would come up by October.

He said the collaboration between his organisation and the state government had been fruitful. Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Alhaji Mahmud Babatunde Ajeigbe, said Kwara Live Project was a collaborative project between VGI and the state government.

He said the platform had created access to various businesses in the state, adding that "we need directories and ways people can access market".

In his remark, state commissioner for Commerce and Cooperatives, Alhaji Ahmed Rifun, stated that the project was of assistance to the state government in numerous ways especially in boosting business activities. He disclosed that about 20,000 businesses were registered through the platform alone in the state last year, adding that more businesses had also been captured this year.

The commissioner assured that the state government would continue to support the platform to ensure business community in the state have access and benefit from government intervention programmes. The briefing was attended by top government officials including the Special Adviser to the state governor on Agriculture and Rural Water Support Services, Mr Anu Ibiwoye, members of the academic community, representative of artisans and the business community among others.