The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has
assured the people of the state of his administration’s resolve to vigorously
pursue policies and programmes that would guarantee shared prosperity and
engender more growth opportunities across the state.
Obaseki gave the assurance at the Alaghodaro Youth
Summit/Job Fair tagged: ‘Pathway to Prosperity’ held at the Edo Innovation Hub
in Benin-city on Friday as part of activities marking his administration second
anniversary celebration.
He said his administration is concerned about the
plight of youths, and is determined to restore hope, which informed the theme
of the youth summit.
According to him, “We realised that Edo youths are
aspirational because of their dream to dominate their environment. Our role as
a government is to help you achieve these dreams.”
Obaseki stated that despite the challenges faced by
his administration, the state government has started on a good note by
restructuring the basic education sector with the Edo Basic Education
Transformation Programme (EDOBEST), which has successfully trained 7,000
digital teachers to change the narrative of basic education in the state.
He added that the promise to create 200,000 jobs is
becoming a reality with the creation of 77,200 jobs achieved in collaboration
with federal government agencies and multilateral institutions.
According to him, "EdoJobs initiative is not
only about giving you work, but it is part of it. It was set up to teach you, train you as well as
give you skills so that you can find jobs or create jobs for yourself and be an
employer of labour.”
The governor also launched the Edo Graduate
Internship Scheme (GIS) and the Edo Start-up Fund Initiative which are aimed at
providing skills for the youths as well as access to finance for small
businesses in order to eliminate obstacles that hinder youths from contributing
to economic development.
The governor, who was visibly elated with the
beneficiaries of the Edo Start-up Fund Initiative, gave them a grant of
N1.8million to enable them scale up their businesses and provide job opportunities
for others in the state.
Registered businesses got N500, 000, while each of
the beneficiaries of the Edo Start-up Fund Initiative received N300, 000.
Obaseki promised to make available N100million
grant to fund start-ups in the state 2019 budget.
Speaking on the Edo Graduate Internship Scheme, the
governor said: "The scheme has identified projects in different areas like
construction, technology and agriculture where we send youth for training. As
they get trained, they will earn a stipend, and at the end of the training, we
will place them on specific jobs.”
Obaseki also disclosed that the Benin Technical College
is almost ready, adding that “by the last quarter of next year, we would have
completed the restructuring of our Colleges of Education with campuses in Abudu
to train primary school teachers and teachers for children with special needs;
the Igueben campus will train secondary school teachers while teachers for
technical and sports education will be trained on the Auchi campus.”
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the
Governor on Jobs Creation and Skills Development, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, has called
on the participants to register at the EdoJobs portal so as to benefit from the
200,000 jobs promised by the government for the Edo people.
She said: “One hundred and seventy two employers
have applied for the Edo State internship and apprenticeship skills scheme, and
18 of them are government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”
While welcoming participants and youths to the
summit, the state Commissioner for Wealth Creation, Cooperatives and Employment,
Emmanuel Usoh, said the Obaseki-led administration is well on track to fulfill
its promise to the people on jobs creation through EdoJobs.
Usoh added that the administration had made
appreciable progress in creating jobs for the youths of the state, and in two
years, there’s certifiable evidence to show for it.
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