By Stanley Nwanosike
Enugu – Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has urged youths in the state to live productive life and shun cyber crime and other social vices
Ugwuanyi gave the advice at the inauguration of TechX Innovation Hub in Enugu on Wednesday.
The governor, who was represented by the Chief Executive Officer of Enugu State Investment Agency, Mr Chibuzor Okafor, also told the youths to indulge in meaningful ventures abound in the state, to improve their lives.
He gave assurance that the state government would continue to provide enabling environment for investment and other socio-economic activities to thrive.
Ugwuanyi, while lauding the founder of the ICT company, Mr Tony Ojobo for setting up the business in Enugu, said :“Enugu State remains one of the safest states in the country.”
He, therefore. assured Ojobo of the state government partnership with his organisation in job creation to reduce unemployment.
Earlier, Ojobo, who is also the President of African ICT Foundation, noted that Nigeria had recently witnessed dwindling fortunes due to the volatility in the international market.
He stressed that the downward trend in the international market had stalled economic development.
This development, he noted, made it difficult for government to provide the necessary social safety nets and benefits for the citizens.
Ojobo, an ex-Public Affairs Director of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), stated that the level of unemployment had remained in the double digits for several years.
He said: ” The available job opportunities cannot absorb the teeming number of graduates coming out of the universities.”
“In realisation of this challenge, our organisation decided to set up an ICT Innovation Hub in Enugu, to contribute our quota toward addressing this problem in the South-East ecosystem.
“The level of unemployment in this region is frightening and something has to be done, urgently to address the trend.
“At TechX, we shall create a platform for people with ideas to incubate, startups, business developers, coders, programmers and techies to perfect and scale up their innovations.”
He ssid the effort would be through a structured mentoring process, training and knowledge development programmes.
“Our teeming youths can focus their creative energies more positively with a platform such as TechX Innovation Hub, to give them a good start in life.”
(NAN)