Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has performed the grand breaking ceremony of the Dangote Education for employment (E4E) job centre at Okpuala in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area of the state.
The pilot project which is to be fully funded by Dangote Group, led by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is aimed at providing a digital one-stop-shop for job seekers with services that include free employment consultancy.
Speaking at the event, Governor Ikpeazu, who was represented by his deputy, Rt Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu, applauded the Dangote group for selecting Abia State as one of the pioneer states for the corporate social responsibility project and called on other corporate organizations to emulate the Dangote group in giving back to the society.
Dr Ikpeazu pointed out that his administration’s pledge to offer technical and vocational education training to 100, 000 youths in the state has been given further boost with the project embarked upon by Dangote Group.
“When we launched the E4E project we started by profiling unemployed youths in the state and created a database that identified their employment needs and then moved further to train the first batch to acquire relevant skills required by employers as well as the skills that will enable others to be self employed. With the expected realization of this job centre project we should be able to acquire additional capacity to place them and others who wish to be gainfully engaged.
“Our administration views job creation and skills development as necessary for our integrated economic development agenda as availability of relevant skill sets in our environment will naturally lead to more investment and further reduction in unemployment related criminal activities”
The Governor promised not to leave any stone unturned in the effort to train and engage as many Abians as are willing to work while assuring that the new job centre facility will be replicated across the remaining 16 LGAs of the state.
He further assured of the willingness of the Abia state government to partner with private and public sector organizations for the common good of Abians and Nigerians
