By Chukwudi Nweje
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has lauded Enugu Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, over his strives to create employment opportunities in the state.
It said the administration’s investments in training youths in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will ensure the state has abundant skilled manpower to support start-ups and tech companies in the country and the continent as a whole.
HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onubiko, and Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf, said this in a statement yesterday.
It said: “Enugu SME centre has partnered private sectors known for their expertise, to ensure the technical, professional, and vocational capacities of the youths are fully built. The Enugu tech, in partnership with Utiva, dealt with training on programming and product design. This was born out of the conviction that technology is the future, and for Enugu to thrive, it had to have a future in technology. The presence of technology experts in Enugu can also ensure a place for tech giants like Google and Microsoft to operate in the state. Enugu tech has graduated over 500 persons, with an additional 500 yet to be trained.”
The group also said Ugwuanyi has etched his name in the annals of history with the announcement by his Special Adviser on SMEs, Arinze Chilo-Offiah, who is also director general of the state’s SMEs Centre, that the state is set to train a fresh batch of over 500 youths in various fields of innovative endeavour.
“There is no doubt then that Ugwuanyi has etched his name on the sands of time, as a governor whose vision has sighted Enugu State as a bride to be courted by every South East man or woman for many generations to come and is working assiduously to consummate this reality.
“The mission to put Enugu on the global map, led the governor through the SMEs centre to embark on numerous projects that were specifically designed to empower the people of Enugu and provide them with the necessary skills,” it said.
HURIWA added that the Governor Ugwuanyi led administration exemplifies genuine leadership and has contributed to the socio-economic lifting of Enugu State.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that Enugu, under the dispensation of genuine leadership of Ugwuanyi, offers a good example of how a combination of sustained investment in nurturing small scale enterprises and removing all stifling bureaucratic structures can launch a state’s economy onto a growth trajectory.
“Generally, Enugu youth empowerment scheme has contributed immensely to the rank that Enugu currently holds. The digital marketing programme has equipped and is still equipping the individuals in the state with the skill through which they can promote their businesses, placing them on the global map. The youths are trained on high income earning digital marketing skills.
“In November 2020, 300 youths graduated from the programme, and have gone ahead to establish trailblasing start-ups, an establishment whose reflections are widely acknowledged presently. The cost of this training, alongside others, was also subsidised to N50,000 from N250,000 with the funding provided by the Enugu SMEs centre to participants through the human capital development loan; one of the many programmes under the human capital development loan initiative,” it said.
