By Mercy Obojeghren
Asaba – Mr Frank Akpoku, Coordinator State Employment and Expenditure For Result (SEEFOR) project, on Friday said six technical colleges and three vocational centres recorded increased students’ enrollment in the last two years.
SEEFOR is a World Bank and European Union (EU) intervention programme.
Akpoku disclosed this during the visit of the World Bank Support Mission to the state in Asaba.
He said that the enrolment figure improved from 678 in 2016/2017 session to 777 in 2017/2018 academic session.
The coordinator said that a total of 733 SEEFOR beneficiaries had passed through the technical colleges and vocational centres across the state.
Akpoku also disclosed that 328 of them passed the screening and that starter packs would be presented to them as soon as the arrangement for the presentation was concluded.
According to him, as part of the measures to facilitate the accreditation of the vocational courses in the three centres, 28 officials of the state government, were sponsored for training by the SEEFOR project as assessors of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
Akpoku recalled that through the efforts of the SEEFOR project, more than 35 courses had been accredited in the six technical colleges since 2017.
He, however, called on the management of the institutions to come up with strategies to boost the revenues of the institutions to ensure sustainability.
The coordinator also recalled that a total of N597 million had been disbursed to communities under the Community Driven Development Social Projects as grants.
Akpoku added that 71 Community Development Plans (CDPs) had been approved with several micro-projects already completed and operational.
In his remarks, the State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr Kingsley Emu, commended the World Bank and EU for partnering with Delta.
He noted that through the SEEFOR intervention projects, the state had recorded giant strides.
Emu reiterated that the State Government would continue to sustain the SEEFOR programmes.
Responding, the World Bank Lead Financial Management Specialist Global Practice, Parminder Brar, said that Delta had performed beyond expectation.
Brar said that available records indicated that SEEFOR project was critical for the people.
(NAN).