National Directorate of Employment, NDE, says it has trained 5,533 beneficiaries in various fields under the Renewed Hope Initiative of the federal government ,just as ,Enugu state Governor Dr Peter Mbah reassures his administration ‘s commitment in poverty reduction.
Pix: : SSG ,Prof Chidiebere Onyia
The Director General of NDE, His Excellency, Silas Ali Agara, disclosed that at the weekend at thr NDE Special Day at the just concluded 36th Enugu International Trade Fair.
He called on Nigerians to assist the organisation to promote the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs and the industrial sector in Nigeria, saying that h the promotion of SMEs would help create more jobs and grow the economy.
Represented by Edmund Onwuleri, Ali said NDE needed the cooperation every Nigerian to ensure that the SMEs and the industrial sector are nurtured to grow in order to provide jobs for the teeming youths as well as grow the economy.
“We urge all stakeholders to join hands with NDE in promoting the growth of Nigeria’s SMEs and industrial sector generally. Together we can create more prosperous and inclusive economy that will ben fit all Nigerians,” he appealed.
Agara since the NDE, had been committed to creating jobs and empowering Nigerians through various programmes and initiatives.
He cited the provision of over 5,532 youths with skills who were trained under the Renewed Hope Employment Initiative of Mr. President as part of the efforts of providing jobs for Nigerians.
In his remarks the Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, who spoke at the occasion, said his administration has been committed to ensuring that poverty is rooted out in the state by ensuring that people are gainfully employed.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government,,SSG, Prof. Chidiebre Onyia, Governor Mbah said the government could assist in job creation by creating the enabling environment for businesses to thrive in order to provide jobs.
Pix: SSG( m) and NDE,ECCMA team
He said since assumption of office, they noticed challenges that could debar investors from investing in the state and moved to ameliorate them.
“One of the key things in our statement is to work towards a zero poverty headcount in Enugu State. To do that, we had to ensure that people are gainfully employed. We created enabling environment for private sector to thrive and to create jobs.
“What we have done since we assumed office is to ensure that we begin to address some of the gaps we saw as challenging for investors to come into Enugu,” he said.
To encourage more investors come into Enugu Mbah said that they addressed the issue of “double, triple taxation ” by harmonizing our tax outlook in Enugu State.
He also said that they made land acquisition easier by ensuring that within a specific period, of 48 hours to get the land title documents for their lands . “This is to ensure that investors will not find it difficult to acquire land in Enugu s state.”
Mbah said they invested heavily on security to ensure that insecurity does not scare investors from the state, citing for instance the stoppage of the obnoxious sit athome order imposed on the state by the pro-Biafra agitators.
Earlier the president of ECCIMA,Sir Odeiga Jideonwo assured partnership with NDE in employment.
Author: Maureen Ikpeama