by crossriverwatch admin
Former member of the House of Representatives and 2015 Cross River gubernatorial aspirant, Hon. Emmanuel Ibeshi has said that the capital investments embarked upon by the state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke have helped to reduce the burden of government on managing and financing parastatals.
He was speaking yesterday at seminar organized by the Students Union Government, SUG of University of Calabar, UNICAL.
Hon. Ibeshi who delivered the keynote address in the seminar which had the theme: Cross River State Beyond Oil: New Economic Realities And Youth Inclusion said: “The capital investments embarked upon by the Senator Liyel Imoke administration through the promotion of foreign direct investments in agriculture (Songhai Farms in Abi LGA and Wilmer International in Biase LGA), educational advancement and technical education to enhance entrepreneurship as exemplified in the Institute of Management Technology, IMT Ugep and the handing over of Tinapa to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria all helped to reduce the burden of the government on managing and financing parastatals and thus making the government smaller and national efficiency stronger”.
According to him, Songhai farm will strengthen our economy; post oil revenue because it is an agro-based program that covers about 450 acres of land thereby making Abi the food basket of the state as the project is designed as a center of excellence for training, production, research, demonstration and development of sustainable agricultural produce.
On the IMT Ugep, Hon. Ibeshi said, “The designers’ ambition is to evolve a world class entrepreneurial polytechnic organization, which will be the first of its kind in Nigeria”. He said in addition that the Wilmer International project in Ibiae and Biase Oil Palm plantation in Cross River State, a multi-million naira agribusiness joint venture between PZ-Cussons and Wilmer International which is to occupy 50, 000 hectares of land to produce oil palm produce that would be further processed into various consumers packed edible oil, cosmetic ingredients and chemicals is a welcomed development.
Continuing, Hon. Emmanuel who partly attributed the high rate of unemployment to courses studied in tertiary institutions in the country maintained that there are some courses that automatically place one as underemployed because the job market has little or no use for their skill.
He advocated for a policy that will focus on professional retraining and call for cooperative job policy programs to be developed and executed.
Also speaking, Chairman of the occasion, Professor Pat Utomi expressed delight with the Students Union Government of the University of Calabar for putting together the one day Economic and Business Opportunities Summit.
The Professor of Economics said that the initiative by the union to empower not just its students but the general public is superb and that it is what youth unions should be doing to fill the unemployment gap.
He enjoined the participants to put everything they will learn into practice because that is the only way to fill the gulf created by their generation which he blamed for most of the short comings experienced in the labor market today.
Also speaking at the event, the Vice Chancellor of UNICAL, Prof. James Epoke and the State chairman of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Margaret Ndoma-Egba both encouraged the participants not to be frivolous with whatever they have learnt so far from the summit.
The SUG President of the institution, Comrade Bassey Eka thanked God for making the event a reality, revealing that the summit was borne out of his administration’s zest for entrepreneurial development.
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