I Have Created 157,000 Jobs in Edo State – Obaseki

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday in Benin City, capital of Edo State, said he has created 157,000 jobs in the last three years of his administration.

He said the jobs were created through job tracking from organisations, job matching and placement, skills acquisitions and entrepreneurship and Edo Innovates programme.

Obaseki, who stated this at the Alaghodaro 2019 Youth Summit as part of activities to mark his three years in office, noted that many people doubted his ability to create the jobs when he made the promise three years ago but decided to take the risk.

He said he was able to achieve the feat by building a job creation programme around six key areas namely: the people, education, sport, entrepreneurship, arts and culture.

On education, Obaseki said by next academic session, he would establish 300 standalone Junior Secondary Schools where vocational training would be offered, noting that any student that passed through the schools would have learnt a skill or a vocation that would make them earn a living.

According to him, “By the time they are graduating from JSS, the children must have had handwork because there will be fundamental training at the schools. We want to change the mindset that education is not about certificate. That is why I introduced EdoJobs to help the youths retrace their steps.

“We are mapping out our economy. We are looking at the future through our 30-year development plan. Our independent power supply would soon be available to power the street lights and production centres.”

He said over 2,000 youths that participated in the youth summit programme have been linked with jobs in some organisations present at the event, adding that about 150 youth have been empowered with engineering starter parks after undergoing various training.