The Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Mrs. Ipalibo Harry Banigo and the wife of the Governor of Rivers State, Justice Eberechi Suzette Wike have commended the Rivers. State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) for organizing Youths Empowerment Programme in the state.
The commendation came as the Agency trained over 300 Youths on Leadership and Entrepreneurship across the state to be self reliance and be employers of labour. In her address at the event the Deputy Governor stated that the Amnesty Programme organized by the state government has no intention to offer money for arms but maintained that government will provide available trainings for the youths who willingly drop their weapons to embrace the amnesty offer.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of RSSDA, Mr. Larry Pepple assured the youths of the state who are committed to entrepreneurship that the Agency will link them to successful organizations and banks that will offer them loans for low interest rate so that they will be employers of labour, saying RSSDA will play an evaluation and monitoring role for the utilization of the funds.
Answering questions from journalists shortly after the event the Executive Director of Second Opportunity Africa, Hon. Linda Somiari Stelwart stated that the aim of the programme was to raise a new brand of leadership in the state including Africa. She maintained that a lot of people applied but only 250 persons were screened because the target was for the graduates who can understand the nature of the programme while tasking youths who want to be future leaders to be connected to the rest of the world through the internet.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Wike on Information, Communications and Technology Mr. Williams Idoniboye stated that what the government did with Heritage Bank was to showcase that the youths of Rivers State has the potentials to be leaders and entrepreneurs who can create jobs for themselves. ###
Pius Dukor
