Nwifuru Pledges Investor-Friendly Business Environment in Ebonyi
From Nabob Ogbonna, Abakaliki
The Governor of Ebonyi state, Francis Nwifuru on Friday assured investors including automobile manufacturers of providing the required enabling environment towards the industrialization of the state.
He maintained that under the People’s Charter of Needs Agenda marta of his administration, insisted that driving development still rest on a strong foundation of infrastructure, human capital, technology and productive enterprise.
Governor Nwifuru made this known on Friday during the formal commissioning of the National Automotive Design and Development Council’s Automotive Training Centre in Abakaliki the state capital.
The Ebonyi NADDC which is located along the Ogoja road in Abakaliki City metropolis is the first federal government automotive training centre commissioned in the South-East.
He said the facility marked a significant step towards the industrialization drive of the state noting that it was designed not merely to train automobile mechanics but to develop a new generation of technicians, engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs in the state.
According to him, “the commissioning of this Centre is consistent with the broader industrialization vision of our administration.
“And as you are all aware, under the People’s Charter of Needs Agenda, we recognise that the sustainable development of our dear State must rest on a strong foundation of infrastructure, human capital, technology and productive enterprise.
“We are therefore deliberately creating an environment in which industries can thrive and our people can acquire the skills required,”he stated.
The Ebonyi governor further said the project which represented a practical convergence of the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda and that of his administration’s marta are centered in the areas of human-capital development, technical education, technology and productive enterprise.
Nwifuru therefore urged youths in the state to take advantage of the facility and discard the perception that technical education was inferior to conventional academic education.
“Technical knowledge is not inferior knowledge because a properly trained automobile technicians could become entrepreneurs, while automotive engineers and fabricators could establish businesses, develop components and create employment,”he added.
He said his administration would continue to provide the necessary environment for responsible investments that would transfer technology, develop local skills and contribute to the productive transformation of the state’s economy.
The Minister of State for Industry, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Owan Enoh, said the commissioning reflected the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led administration to skills development, human-capital development and industrialization.
Enoh, who said the Ebonyi centre was the first NADDC facility commissioned in the South-East, identified skills development as one of the major requirements for industrial growth.
He said the rapid emergence of technologies such as electric vehicles and advanced energy-management systems, required corresponding investment in technical training.
The NADDC Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, said the centre was established to provide practical, industry-relevant training for youths, technicians, artisans, students, entrepreneurs and other automotive practitioners in Ebonyi and the South-East.
Osanipin said the facility was equipped with modern training tools and designed to support skills acquisition, technical innovation, entrepreneurship, technology transfer and workforce development.
He disclosed that NADDC was working towards introducing graded automotive certification from Level One to Level Nine under Nigeria’s skills qualification framework.
