The Edo State Government has concluded plans with its partners to extend fibre optic cables to the 18 local government areas of the State as part of renewed efforts to expand the state’s digital space and reduce rural-urban migration.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie, disclosed at the weekend while addressing journalists in Benin City, noting that with the development, Edo will become the first state in the country to attain the feat.

According to him, “The Edo State Government has finalized arrangements with its partners to run fibre optic cables across all local government councils in the state by September, becoming the first state in the country to achieve the lofty feat.

The Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration has, in the past six years, pursued reforms and projects to ensure the right physical and digital infrastructure to drive sustainable growth and development in the state, leveraging technology and this new arrangement will further bolster the government’s efforts at expanding its digital space and pushing up the commerce potential of all Edo local councils, thereby improving the livelihoods of the people and reducing rural-urban drift.

“We are ensuring steady electricity across all our communities, making sure that developmental projects in the urban centres are extended to the rural communities.

“We are confident that with electricity and fibre connectivity people will not have to leave their villages to the urban centres for their businesses, which is why we are partnering with the local governments to extend fibre network to all Edo communities.”

Osagie further noted, “Most of the LGAs in metropolitan Benin are already connected to fibre. This new arrangement is designed to stretch the cable to all other LGAs of the state to ensure that every Edo resident, including rural dwellers carry out ecommerce as effectively as it happens in any urban centre in the state, contributing their quota to the development of the state irrespective of their location.”