Okezie Ikpeazu moves to tackle joblessness in Abia State

The need to develop integrated approach to tackle unemployment at the state level has become more imperative now than ever before, the Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has said.

Delivering a lecture entitled: “Unemployment: who will tame this monster”, the governor stated that unemployment has become a socio-economic problem and since little or nothing had been done to put it on check, it has had adverse effects the country and has led to criminal activities and other evil vices.

The governor identified wrong government policies, corruption, lack of skill, ghost workers holding real jobs, difficulty in accessing capital for businesses, wrong education policies, poor power supply and neglect of farming as major factors boosting unemployment.

On the flip side, Ikpeazu also listed high crime-rate, civil unrest, high suicide rate, divorce, frustration, and easy availability of political thugs among other factors as dangers of failure to tackle unemployment by all the major stakeholders.

On what Abia State government is doing to tackle joblessness, Ikpeazu said the state government has embarked upon what he termed the ‘Abia example’ to tackle the menace.

His explanation: “What we have been able to do in Abia State to stem this tide and create jobs for our people since we came on board is the One-Stop-Shop/PPP. We have built a One-Stop-Investment Centre, which is geared towards easing the process of starting a business in Abia State for investors. We have a very short period of providing Certificates of Occupancy and other business requirements so that the businesses can start and employ our people.

“Abia State is currently playing host to the Central Bank of Nigeria Entrepreneurship Development Centre which provides training and empowerment for youths in the South-East.