Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu today said with successes record in its job creation and entrepreneurial programmes, the state had moved from a consumption state to a producing state.
Speaking on “News Across Nigeria” on Channels TV, Aniagwu said the Okowa administration had succeeded in bringing back the lost jobs which had greatly enhanced the living conditions of the people.
Aniagwu said that the state had successfully trained over 16,000 entrepreneurs who had also trained others running into over 100,000.
“In Delta, our approach to job creation is not just about training the youths in relevant skills, we also teach them and bring them up to speed with respect to management of the businesses they may possibly engage in.
“We also mentor them to ensure that they are able to treat their customers well and also save their funds for possible expansion and we are quite happy that a number of persons we trained in Delta are now successful entrepreneurs.
“You do know that before now a number of skilled workers we needed for tiling, POP, furniture making became very scarce to the extent that they were coming from Niger Republic and Benin Republic.
“But today by the grace of God, in Delta we are now exporting skills because we have trained quite a number of persons in these different fields.
“We are quite happy with the progress we have made in our various job creation platforms and we do hope that other states would emulate this because it will help to tackle the issue of stomach infrastructure,” he said.
Aniagwu who is also Spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, said the Atiku-Okowa ticket of the PDP would leverage on the successes recorded by Okowa in job creation to bring back lost jobs when the party takes over the reins of governance in 2023.
“Beyond the fact that Okowa is quite presidential, Atiku also acknowledged the fact that the governor has made considerable contributions to the development of the state and improvement of manpower.
“The beauty of this is that Atiku has also made it very clear that $10billion will be set aside to enhance MSMEs in the country which means that a number of the informal sector will be enhanced.
“What Okowa has done in Delta becomes readily available to help bring back the jobs across the nation because what we earnestly yearn for at the moment is the need for a number of youths to be gainfully employed,”
Aniagwu further said that the high rate of unemployment buffeting the country was unacceptable and could be responsible for the high level of insecurity across the nation.
“The high rate of unemployment in the country is not acceptable and perhaps that explains why insecurity is gaining more grounds.
“Atiku-Okowa believe that to be able to fight insecurity, corruption and to advance our country such that our economy will blossom once again, you will need to bring back the jobs.
“One of the ways to bring back the jobs is not to employ people into the civil service but to make individuals to become productive and that’s the fastest way to move from consumption to productivity.
“What we are doing in Delta is a ready example of what Atiku and Okowa will be bring to bear at the federal level.
“Atiku is a man who understands how to create jobs, he has done it even in the private sector and as somebody who is coming on board by the grace of God from May 29, 2023, I do hope and quite optimistic that he will make sure that jobs return to our country and our youths will become quite entrepreneurial giving the fact that they are quite skilful in a number of ways.”