by crossriverwatch admin
The need for the Cross River State government to create a Ministry of Science and Technology to drive the industrial sector of the state has been advocated.
Coordinator, Federal Technology Incubation Center Calabar, Mr. Edodi Unonoh made this call when he visited journalists as part of the center’s advocacy meeting with the members of the press at the Ernest Bassey Press Center Calabar.
Mr. Edodi said creating the ministry will foster and drive the industrial and manufacturing program of the State government.
“What we want now from the Cross River State Government is for the State Government to create the Ministry of Science and Technology to grow the economy of Cross River State.
“If the Ministry is not in place, Cross River State economy might not grow as planned, it means we will continue to buy, buy and buy and continue to be a consuming rather that producing economy.
“Creating the Ministry will make great impact by driving the state industrial program and Technical education in schools” he said.
Continuing he said: “The essence of why we are here is because we need people to have access to information that there is a place close to them where they can be trained. If you have people in your vicinity who are unemployed and you don’t tell them about the place like this they may not know.
“Currently we are training a lot of people on how to use their hands to get skills. The Federal Government has done so much and Cross River government has partnered with us in an effort to reduce unemployment rate.
“Our training cut across; we have been training medical doctors, lawyers and those who did not attend school at all, so it cut across, all we are interested in is to use your hands to manufacture.
“We have some challenges of awareness which is where the press comes in, to impress it on the mind of Nigerians to patronize made in Nigeria products and inform them that opportunities like these are around them because 80% of what we use today in Nigeria and I dare say in Cross River are imported.
“Most of what we produce like balm, juice, honey, custard, yoghurt, tissue paper, among others are produced in here in Calabar and I urge you as journalists to let the people know that these products are as good as those imported ones”.
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