Ebonyi State Commissioner for Economic Empowerment and Job Creation, Sabinus Nwakwegu, explains to Special Correspondent, CHIJIOKE AGWU, in Abakaliki why the state government is training youths in horticulture.
He also speaks on other training and empowerment programmes of the ministry, including getting hawkers off the streets.
Affecting lives
I am the commissioner for economic empowerment and job creation in Ebonyi State; and by the grace of God, I am also former deputy speaker of state House of Assembly.
This ministry used to be known as the Ministry of Economic Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation. It was changed to the Ministry of Economic Empowerment and Job Creation by our hardworking Governor, David Umahi, in line with his agenda of empowering Ebonyi people.
That is to say that the ministry is saddled with the responsibility of seeing that our youths are gainfully engaged through training and re-training – and empowering them, too – because our government believes that to tackle youth restiveness, unempl oyment needs to be tackled first.
We believe that they should be trained in various skills, including scridding. It is very unfortunate that in this country, if you are building a house and you want the house to be scridded, you have to engage Ghanaians, Togolese or Senegalese while our boys here are doing nothing.
That is why the governor said enough is enough, our youths should be engaged in meaningful ventures.
Again, under this ministry there is a programme going on in Abuja on horticulture which our youths are also participating in. The governor believes that when the youths are trained they can also train others in the state.
About six Ebonyians are currently participating in the programme. We selected two persons in each of the three senatorial zones of the state for the training.
By the time they finish the training, they will be settled to start their own.
Setting them up after training
Our youth-loving governor has graciously approved that each trainee will be given N1 million to start his own business in horticulture when they come back from the training.
But we have the problem of water. The geologist we engaged to get water for us at Juju Hill said the level of water there is far below borehole level.
So, when they finish their training I will go to Abuja for the closing ceremony and bring them back for the state to settle them to start their own businesses.
The money to set them up has been approved.
Ensuring funds are not misused
We are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with them. In the MOU, they will tell us how they intend to use the money judiciously.
We want multiplier effects. If they start the business they will train others, so that the thing will keep moving; and before you know it, a good number of our youths will be trained.
We shall be monitoring them to ensure judicious use of the money.
Juju Hill water problem and proposed water factory
The issue of water at Juju Hill is different from the state government’s plan to establish a water factory.
Here, we are talking about water which horticulturists will use for their nurseries, not the lack of water for a water factory.
We are working on fixing that anyway.
Other programmes
Another scheme we have in the ministry is the Youwin Programme of the federal government, which was started during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Our governor, being a highly innovative governor, likes the programme and directed my ministry to key into it and package our youths to benefit from it.
We started with a new Website (www.moeejc.com) with a scratch card to enable our youths access the website.
There are some questions you are expected to answer to test you to know whether you have a business idea. It is not a jamboree programme; we need serious-minded youths.
We want to know the youths that can handle important projects or business plans. The moment we go through the applications, local government by local government, we will come out with those who are successful.
In Abakaliki Local Government, we have 26 youths, Afikpo North 15, Afikpo South five, Ebonyi three, Ezza North nine, Ezza South four, Ikwo six, Izzi six, Ishieli 10, Ohaozara five, Ohaukwu 13, Onicha six.
A total 116 persons have applied so far.
That is what we have got so far, but 17 out of these persons didn’t indicate the local government they come from. And that totally invalidates such applications because you can’t come from the air.
Where you come from is one of the basic information we need while assessing you. All this information is on the website for intending applicants.
Requirements
In the application you are required to submit your business plan for us to see and know how viable it is.
We want youths that will put our money to use and not people who, when you give them money, they will go and marry more wives and abandon the purpose for which the money was given to them.
The governor has said that the time of wastage has gone in the state.
Benefits of Youwin Programme
The programme has a lot of benefits.
One, during the campaign, the governor promised that he would better the lives of Ebonyians – and he is doing it economically, infrastructurally, morally, and more.
He promised to take the projects one by one. If you had been to Abakaliki before Umahi assumed office, you will agree totally with me that things have drastically improved.
He is doing this because this government is anchored on a divine mandate.
When the people you are ruling are happy with you, you can sleep very well. That is also one of the benefits.
Furthermore, all this youth restiveness, youth exuberance, what are the causes? Idleness. Because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
But the moment you keep someone busy, he can’t think about committing crime, and where crime is reduced the leader is happy because the state is calm.
IGR value in programme
The state government needs IGR (internally generated revenue) because our monthly allocation has dropped badly.
The programme will improve the IGR of the state because those we are training will train others who will also establish businesses. They will pay the government tax and thereby increase IGR.
Our responsibility is to monitor them to see that they don’t misuse the money.
Sensitising the people on the benefits
We have done a lot of publication and sensitisation to inform the people about our programmes. We have mounted billboards at strategic areas in the state.
We have also done interactive programmes on radio and television, including publication in newspapers, to sensitive them on the procedure of application and the benefits therein.
I can attribute the low application to ignorance on the use of the internet.
Financial empowerment of Ebonyians
Yes, the governor has approved the empowerment of some selected Ebonyians with N50,000 each.
We are working on compiling the list of the beneficiaries in all the 171 wards of the state, and as soon as that is done, the money will be disbursed.
Criteria for selecting beneficiaries
The beneficiaries will be the poor people and not those who have viable means of livelihood.
We have held meetings at the council headquarters with the political leaders on how to select the beneficiaries. As soon as we are done, the governor will empower them.
We also talk of the sachet water factory which the governor and the executive council approved; and when that is done, lots of Ebonyians will be employed.
Other training schemes
Our youths will be trained in various fields such as scridding, carpentry, masonry, fashion designing, and many more.
We will have training centres across the three senatorial zones of the state.
Vision of ministry
We want an Ebonyi where youths are serious, vibrant, enterprising, and useful to themselves and to the society.
I am very happy because those in Abuja have been calling me and talking about the good performance of our youths who are receiving training there.
Challenges
One of our political grandees, Arthur Nzeribe, was asked what it takes to win elections; he said, first money, second money, third money, fourth money, money, money.
Our challenge here is money but we thank our governor that in spite of the financial difficulty, we are moving forward.
Rehabilitation of street hawkers
We are also working on that, and very soon we will come out with a comprehensive list of all Ebonyians hawking in the cities with a view to rehabilitating them.
Just a few weeks back, we visited Lagos State and interacted with some of them. We disclosed to them the readiness of the Ebonyi State government to bring them back home and train them and also empower them.
They were very happy to see us and also expressed readiness to embrace the scheme. We are also looking forward to visiting other cities to meet them.
Certainly, very soon we will begin the exercise.