Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa has reinstated his administration’s commitment to finding solutions to youth unemployment and restiveness through skills training and entrepreneurship programmes.
The governor made this disclosure in Asaba while handing out starter packs to another 44 graduates under the State Government’s Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) last Tuesday.
Represented by the state Chief Jobs Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh, Okowa charged the beneficiaries to work hard to sustain their enterprises, so as to become wealth and job creators to reduce unemployment in the state.
He lauded the 44 STEP entrepreneurs, who had completed their training in Decoration and Event Management.
The governor said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that the youths were successfully established after their three months training at different training centres across the state.
Okowa said the programme was carefully designed and implemented to ensure that the beneficiaries succeed as ‘STEPreneurs’ in order to drive and anchor economic change in the state.
He told them, “What you are seeing here today is not fake, it is an evidence of a government that fulfils its promise.
“The 2016 Cycle of the job creation programme is at its second phase, which is the distribution of starter packs to beneficiaries. “The Delta Job Creation Prosperity Train is moving; we are making the distribution in batches. “We have given out starter packs to ‘STEPreneurs’ trained in Audio-Visual Technology, POP and Tiling, Hairdressing and Makeover and Interlocking”.
He said that the Youth Agriculture Entrepreneurship Programme (YAGEPreneurs), had been established in their irrigated tomato production, fish production and rice production in different farm clusters across the state.
“Also, we shall be allotting Alao-Ossissa Fish Cluster to some YAGEPreneurs,” he said.
Some of the items given to each beneficiary included; non-repayable job creation, rectangular plastic tables, armless plastic chairs, micro credit festival tent.
Other items were, flower vases; fabrics, paper ribbon, adjustable aluminium ladder, hammer, retractable tapes, packs of pin, pair of scissors.
Each beneficiary also received a cash allowance of N150, 000. 00 and N10, 000. 00 monthly stipend for three months among others.