By Bukola Adama
Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed has charged youths in the state to take advantage of the State micro-credit intervention scheme for Small and Medium scale enterprises to attain self-sufficiency.
Ahmed stated this during an interactive session with indigenous youth development associations and youth assemblies from Ilorin South Local Government in Ilorin on Tuesday as part of the ongoing consultation with groups and associations in the state.
He said young people cannot continue to rely on government for white collar jobs that have become scarce, as the capacity of government at all levels to employ more people has been limited due to the current economic situation of the country.
The governor noted that youths must look beyond government jobs, because there is no administration anywhere in the world that can provide employments for all its people.
He said, the state government was creating enabling environment for the private sector to create jobs.
He, therefore, charged the youth to channel their energy towards positive engagement in entrepreneurship, particularly agriculture, where he said, there are huge potential and prosperity.
Governor Ahmed expressed the readiness of his administration to support young entrepreneurs with micro-credit under its SME intervention scheme, while advising the youths to take advantage of the scheme, which has already benefited more than 50,000 small businesses in the state.
Speaking on the salary crisis affecting local governments in the state, Governor Ahmed said that improving the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the councils remains the only viable solution to the salary delay, as the problem was created by drop in allocation.
He said but for the IGR drive of the government, state workers would also be facing salary delays, as it is the situation in most states of the federation. According to him, the state government uses its internal revenue to augment federal allocations to pay salaries and to execute developmental projects and programmes.
The governor, however, noted that the state government was working with the local councils to overcome the salary crisis.
In an interview with newsmen after the programme, Oladimeji Kajewole from Oke-Ogun ward commended the governor for initiating the interactive session, and urged him to address all the issues raised by the youth groups.
In his remarks, Alhaji Dare Yusuf from Ilorin South, said the interactive session provides an avenue for the youths to express their grievances and expectations. He also called on the state government to fulfil its promises to the people.
