Ikpeazu to create 700,000 new jobs to address insecurity in Abia

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state has revealed that 700, 000 new jobs will be created in the state in the next 10 years as part of deliberate efforts to address the challenges of insecurity and socio-economic unrest.

The governor revealed this when he fielded questions from State House correspondents on Sunday in Abuja.

He identified the decay in education as well as the rising unemployment rate across the country as a time bomb that must be addressed by all tiers of government and the private sector.

His administration, the governor said has keyed into the federal government’s plan of addressing the problem of youth unemployment through its Enyimba Economic City project.

“I want to say this to all of us that by 2030 the population of Nigeria would double. So the ticking timing bomb is not the decay in infrastructure. The time bomb is education and unemployment and it speaks to everything including crime.

“So, in Abia we are planning to create 700, 000 jobs in 10 years. Certainly, I will not be governor in the next 10 years, but we are planning ahead for the good people of Abia state that will come tomorrow or after us.

“And until we continue to plan or begin to plan ahead not for the next election, but for the next generation we will not be able to do anything futuristic in our socio-economic development in Nigeria,” Ikpeazu added.

The governor expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the Enyimba Economic, saying that “we are happy and glad that the enthusiasm of investors outside Nigeria is overwhelming. So, our target is to create 700, 000 jobs in 10 years and to also create a centre from where people can manufacture and export without paying anything.”

Also, Ikpeazu revealed that his administration is upgrading and modernising the Abia Shoe Factory with the latest shoe making equipment and facilities to meet international specifications.

“We want our shoemakers to begin to compete with the best shoemakers in the world and it will happen; there is a Brazilian shoe factory already that has taken stock of the quantity of shoes that we bought through Alaba (market) into Nigeria on monthly basis and they are prepared to reach a memorandum of understanding with importers to supply all those shoes.

“So, we are going to give the Chinese a good run for their money because the option we are providing includes shoes from Brazil,” he enthused.

He further disclosed that the state government has embarked on the massive construction and rehabilitation of roads in the state as the state’s economy largely, depends on the influx of over 25 million people into the state annually.

“We have a catchment business population of about 25 million that come to do business within Abia state, 60 per cent of the people come from the Port Harcourt axis, 30 per cent from Calabar – Akwa Ibom axis and the remaining 10 per cent from everywhere, including Cameroun and other parts of Nigeria,” he boasted.