By Uche Ogbonnaya
YOUTHS in Delta State have commended the effort of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, for harnessing and growing the talents and potentials of young people through the various initiatives put in place to make life better for them.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Development, Ambassador Elvis Akpobi, the State Governor believes that when young people are given access to the tools they need to live their dreams, families will thrive, communities will develop rapidly, crime rate and restiviness will reduce.
He remarked that the Governor gave young Deltans with character and capacity the opportunity to be part of governance through appointments into his cabinet as well as various sustainable youth empowerment programs.
Akpobi explains, “As part of effort to cushion the effect of unemployment among youths, Dr. Okowa through the State Job and Wealth Creation Office, has produced over 5,074 youth entrepreneurs in the state within the last five years.
Also, through the Delta State Girl-Child Empowerment Office, young ladies within ages of 18 – 30 years are becoming young CEOs through several trainings such as Cosmetology, Fashion designing, ICT among others that have impacted their lives and created spring boards for them to grow”.
He explained further that through the State Ministry of Youth Development, the Okowa-led administration has trained and empowered 776 youths under the The Rural Youth Skill Acquisition Programme (RYSA) in the first cycle, not forgetting the recent approval of another cycle by the state exco .
Akpobi added that this is a Ward based skill acquisition program created for the rural youth population with the objectives to create income earning opportunities, stem youth restiveness, discourage rural-urban drift and grow the local economy.
He recalled that the Okowa-led administration has also done well for the women through the Women Affairs Ministry, having empowered 460 women from the 25 local government areas of the state.
“Through stringent screening exercise and proficiency test from the 270 wards in the twenty five Local Government Areas of the State, the 460 women were selected and enrolled into refresher Skill Acquisition training programmes”, he said.
While advising youths to take advantage of these intimacy of the Gov Okowa’s administration with young Deltans, he encouraged the youths across the state to do everything possible to support the administration.
