Unemployment’s Delta’s biggest challenge, says Uduaghan Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan yesterday said that the biggest challenge of his government was how to reduce unemployment in the state. This challenge, he said, resulted in the initiative of ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ which is aimed at refocusing the mind of the youth beyond what they can get from oil. Speaking at the presentation of the products manufactured by Delta State youths to the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Olusegun Awolowo, in Abuja, the governor said that he came to meet with Awolowo to seek the support of NEPC to market those products abroad. “We believe in micro-credit schemes that will industrialise the area. We are using these micro-credit industries to enable us grow small scale industries in the area. Everything about our budget is founded on ‘Delta Beyond Oil” he said. To ensure that the strategy is sustained, Uduaghan said that the government was putting legal framework that will protect the investment. “Another sustainable strategy is to educate the people on the need to embrace the Delta Beyond Oil. We shall soon launch books on them to be distributed to all tiers of our educational system” he said. In his remarks, Awolowo recalled that Delta is one of the major oil-producing states in the country adding that the concept of Delta Beyond Oil was commendable. “However, you have made a very commendable move by conceptualizing and articulating a holistic strategy for your vision of Delta Beyond Oil, educating Deltans that oil and gas are infinite assets and exhaustible resources which cannot be permanently relied on. In realizing your vision, you have embarked on integrated projects ranging from addressing infrastructure deficits, to investments and projects in health, education, ICT, agriculture” Awolowo, noted. While appreciating the governor’s visit, Awolowo, said the visit to NEPC coincided with the time National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the GDP for 1Q, 2014 which stated that the country’s GDP grew by 6.21 per cent. “In that report, while the oil sector recorded a negative real growth rate of 6.60 per cent indicating a better performance over the past two quarters, non-oil sector recorded a real growth rate of 8.21 per cent in quarter 1 of 2014, performing better than oil. This upward trend in the growth of the non-oil sector can only be attributed to intensified drive by the government and partners to diversify the economy and think beyond monolithic economy, which is oil-based” he said.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:05:02 +0000
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