By Emmanuel Uffot
Succour has come the way of some of the graduated trainees of the 3000 project initiated by Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration last year. Consequently, 1000 out of the 3000 unemployed youths trained in different skills have been empowered with start-up grants and packs for higher productivity and self-development.
Delivering the grants at the graduation ceremony of the first batch of the participants in Uyo on Wednesday, Governor Udom Emmanuel advised beneficiaries to make judicious use of the acquired skills and start- up funds. The Governor who was represented by the Deputy Governor Moses Ekpo admonished the graduands whom he described as trail- blazers of the project to see the starter packs as empowerment tools to advance their personal development in order to justify the confidence reposed on them by the state government and cautioned them against selling off the laptops and other kits provided.
He said the 3000 project which is one of the platforms for the implementation of the 8-point Completion Agenda comprising Human Capacity Development, Industrialization, Agriculture and Small and Medium Enterprises Development,is a critical component of administration’s agenda to create employment opportunities and wealth for Akwa Ibom people,
He noted that the scheme was designed to accommodate youths and women due to the significant role they play in community development which account for about 48 per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He assured that with the training, unemployment would be tackled in the state, while also offering graduands the opportunity to secure lucrative employment in multinational companies and large scale industries. He added that the training would also equip participants with entrepreneurial/ managerial skills, value re-orientation and attitudinal change in areas such as Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Information and Communication Technology and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMES).
In his remark, the Commissioner of Ministry of Trade and Investment, Engineer Camillus Umoh stated that the graduation ceremony was the first phase of the Ibom Project meant to train 3000 beneficiaries from the three senatorial districts of the state and explained that the aim of the scheme was to endow youth with basic skills to enhance their small businesses and enable them secure jobs in multinationals and other business concerns.
He appreciated Governor Emmanuel for actualizing his vision of human capacity development through the project, and lauded the facilitators and trainees for their diligence exhibited in the course of the training, revealing that plans for the second phase was underway.
The Ibom 3000 Project is a human capital development and economic transformation programme conceived by the state government to empower the youths.
The state government, through the Ministry of Trade and Investment, had in 2021 commenced the training of 3,000 youths in a scheme meant to identify, train, mentor, empower and build the capacity of existing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and startups across the 31 local councils of the state.
The scheme was meant to run in three phases with each phase having 1000 trainees who would focus on three areas of choice which included, oil and gas, agribusiness, ICT, and SMEs to enable them to secure gainful employment. The training was to equip participants with entrepreneurial/ managerial skills, value re-orientation and attitudinal change in areas such as Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Information and Communication Technology, and Micro Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMES).
The empowerment of the first batch of the trainees has finally put to rest the uncertainty among the beneficiaries that they may have been abandoned by the government after finishing the training since last year. Infact there were speculations that the graduands of the 3000 project had even mooted a protest over the delay in empowering them as was promised by government. Their worry was that they neither got the certificate nor starter packs.
Sources revealed that the major reasons why their graduation ceremony and empowerment was delayed had to do with the change in the overseeing Commissioner of Trade and Investment. Recalled that Prince Ukpong Akpabio was the substantive Commissioner in the Ministry when the project was instituted in 2021, but resigned to pursue his political ambition and was replaced by the current Commissioner Umoh.
Ever since his assumption of office, the trainees we gathered had been thronging his office to make a case for their graduation exercise and start-up empowerment to enable achieved the goal of their training.
Before this week empowerment of the first batch of the 3000 project trainees, 250 youths who undertook oil and gas at the Nya Odiong Training Academy in Mkpat had graduated. The oil and gas trainees financed by the Akwa Ibom State Government are aimed at providing the needed manpower in the oil and gas sector not only in the state and country but globally. The 250 graduands were the first batch of the 3000 that are to be trained in that skill by the government.
During their graduation, the Governor promised them that the State Government was working on getting certification for them from relevant bodies like Maritime, DPR and Federal Ministry of Labour.
The latest of the trainings are in addition to over 3, 000 youths the government has reportedly trained in ICT, to make them fit into a global economic environment that is being designed by technology.
