KWARA STATE GOVT. VOWS TO ENCOURAGE A PRIVATE DRIVEN ECONOMY

KWARA STATE GOVT. VOWS TO ENCOURAGE A PRIVATE DRIVEN ECONOMY 

 

KWARA STATE GOVT.VOWS TO ENCOURAGE A PRIVATE DRIVEN ECONOMY ………..
AS KWASU HOSTS 2^ND ENTRPRENEURSHIP DIRECTORS’ CONFERENCE.
The Kwara State Government has intensified efforts at providing an enabling environment for the private sector to drive the economy efficiently and for youths to acquire entrepreneurial skills. The State Governor, Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed, represented by his deputy, Elder Peter Kisira, gave the assurance while declaring open the second Entrepreneurship Directors Conference, held at the auditorium of the Kwara State University, Malete.
The Governor said the Conference with the theme “Towards Effective Entrepreneurship Delivery Strategies for National Growth" is apt and timely due to the need to make the larger society imbibe the culture of self-sustenance through promotion of acquisition of effective and efficient creative skills especially among the youths.     He noted that his administration created the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology to focus attention on the standard of higher educational institutions, pointing out that government had commenced repositioning of technical colleges with the establishment of the International Vocational Centre to train artisans.
According to him, all the efforts are geared towards creating the right caliber of people that could positively impact on the states socio-economic growth and reduce tension and conflicts to enable the state enjoy its true state of harmony status among other states of the federation.      Governor Ahmed stated that the Conference was significant considering the high rate of unemployment and poverty ratio especially among the youth.
" No country with this massive potential can afford to be unmindful of the danger inherent in non-effective mobilization of its youths for socio-economic development. With our State University's Global Entrepreneurship programme, our youths can fully be guaranteed hope for the future".
" Building on the synergy already established between the office of my Senior Special Assistant on Youth Empowerment and the Kwara State University Entrepreneurship Centre, I want to encourage even private sector employers to send their middle level personnel for efficient training at the University not only to improve on their skills but also to update their skills", he said.
Governor Ahmed assured that his Government would continue to encourage the State University by providing necessary funds for delivery and the general public to move closer to enjoy the service the University can offer in this entrepreneurship project".
Delivering a lecture titled “Funding Efficient Entrepreneurship Training Infrastructure", the Director of Entrepreneurship Centre, University of East London, United Kingdom, Professor Sonny Nwankwo, emphasized the need for appropriate funding of entrepreneurship programmes by government and private sector in a way that would impact knowledge on the people and chart a new way at alleviating unemployment rate in the country.
Professor Nwankwo, said socio-economic system should not be created to impress people but should be properly channeled towards making people self-employed through appropriate entrepreneurial skills acquisition programmes which would be capable of taming unemployment rate.
He challenged African Universities to design and implement their curriculum by focusing much attention on entrepreneurship in order to train people who will have intellectual capacity to create wealth.
In his address of welcome, the Pioneer Vice Chancellor of the Kwara State University, Malete, Professor AbdulRasheed Na'Allah, said the University is focusing on the development of its immediate communities by harnessing untapped resources in the communities and create networks for research development.
Professor Na'Allah, noted that African Universities had failed the continent woefully by not tapping the abundant resources available and stressed the need to start from the scratch by looking for the untapped resources and use them to create wealth for the continent.
The Vice Chancellor stressed the need to mobilize the youths, re orientate and re strategize them to create wealth for the nation, calling for more funds for research and appropriate use of the funds for the growth of the country.
Delivering his speech, the Director Centre for Entrepreneurship, Dr.Muritala Awodun, said the Centre synergized with the Office of the Special Assistant to the State Government on Youth Empowerment where 150 unemployed youths were trained, adding that the state government had released  N45 million to empower them. He also noted that out of the 231 graduands of the University, 190 successfully completed the entrepreneurship programme and the state government had earmarked certain amount of money to empower them to venture into any business of their choice.
Certificates were later presented to the graduands of Kwara State Youth Empowerment and entrepreneurial graduates of the Kwara State University by the Deputy Governor, Elder Peter Kisira.