Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has inaugurated the 2016 cycle of his administration’s job creation scheme.
This was done at the Songhai-Delta Training Centre, Amukpe, Sapele, in the company of top government officials from the state.
The wealth creation programmes are tagged Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) and Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP).
Flagging off the training, Governor Okowa said that entrepreneurship is the way out of the unemployment challenges facing the country, encouraging the new intakes to passionately devote themselves to learning.
The scheme which admitted about 1,000 people is geared towards solving the incessant unemployment challenges facing the state and the country at large.
Unemployment in Nigeria assumed a greater dimension with the over-dependence on oil, as young school leavers are forced to abandon their communities in search of employment in the urban centres.
The Delta government decided to tackle this problem by empowering youths to acquire skills, for self-sufficiency and to become employers of labour. The participants include young school leavers, graduates and others carefully selected.
Graduates of the 2015 cycle gave testimonies of the business exploits they have made after graduating, justifying the state government’s investment in the project.
The Chairman of the Delta State Traditional Rulers Council, the Obi of Owa, Emmanuel Efeizomor II, who spoke on behalf of traditional rulers who attended the ceremony, expressed satisfaction with the success stories of the empowerment programmes encouraging the incoming trainees to take their training seriously.
Many Delta citizens have also expressed hope that international development partners and non-governmental organizations would give their technical support and collaborate with the state government to tackle unemployment in the state.
