Body Holds Workshop For LG Heads In C’River

As a way to assist residents of Cross River State overcome recession, an NGO operating at the grass root under the auspices of Youth Leadership Entrepreneurship Access Development Project (YOULEAD) facilitated by CUSO International has begun the tutoring and mentoring of Heads of Local Government Administration (HOLGA) on effective utilization of natural resources within their council areas.
The Programme Manager, Policy and Natural Resources, YOULEAD Project, Mr. Godwin Ugah, who spoke to newsmen shortly after the event held at the Headquarters of Calabar Municipality, said the training would at the end of the day help in reducing youth unemployment.
Ugah stated that the training which would help to bring green about economy is targeted at natural resources like agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, ecotourism and several others to make young men and women self – reliant.
He said that the training was going to aide beneficiaries improve their entrepreneurial skills, with knowledge to formulate policies that will usher in an enabling environment for job increment, economic opportunities and natural resources.
“This can be achieved through capacity building of partners and stake holders in Cross River State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA), Community Base Organizations,” he said.
YOULEAD project manager averred that capacity assessment had already been conducted within the 17 local government areas of the state to assess the operational capacity, identify and strengthen areas of improvement to drive the green economy concept.
He said, “We planned to carry out a capacity assessment of local governments, build their capacity, ensure uptake of capacity built as well as monitor and evaluate progress made.”
“Having concluded the assessment, we convened this forum to share findings from the assessment conducted and develop an implementation action plan to drive more responsive implementation of natural resources management policies and practices.”
When asked to explain the mission of CUSO international and the Youth Leadership Entrepreneurship Access And Development Project (YouLead) were doing in Cross River State, the project manager stated that they were in Cross River to promote youth employment and entrepreneurship in natural resources sectors of agriculture.
Other areas that need to be touched for the green economy to be introduced by the local government administrators includes, forestry, ecotourism, renewal energy and agriculture across the three senatorial districts of the state.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar