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The Enugu State Government has expressed interest in partnership with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) for the training of 40,000 unemployed people in the state annually.

The Commissioner for Human Capital Development and Poverty Eradication, Dr. Malachy Agbo made this known during a familiarization visit to the State Coordinator of NDE in his office on Thursday.

He observed that human capital development was critical to the wellbeing and prosperity of the citizens, saying this informed the determination of Governor Peter Mbah’s administration to equip youths and unemployed people with various vocational skills to be productive and gainfully employed.

Dr. Agbo emphasized that in order to overcome poverty, there was need to go beyond school certification by giving the people additional skills to expand the economy.

“The administration of Dr Peter Mbah is aiming to reduce the poverty headcount index of Enugu State to zero in the next eight years. All hands must be on deck to achieve this lofty goal. For us in the ministry, human capital development is pivotal to this drive.

“This is why we are seeking for partnership that will create the enabling capacity to train over 40,000 Enugu people on various vocational skills, and the National Directorate of Employment has the required contents and capabilities to make this possible.

“We are committed as a government in scaling up our people’s capabilities to achieve their life goals and ambitions. If over 40,000 youths and unemployed ones are trained per annum and they become income earners, you can only imagine the exponential growth in the economy of the state in the years to come,” Agbo said.

Responding, the State Coordinator of NDE, Mr. Eugene Agu expressed joy at the visit of the Commissioner, saying his office was willing and prepared to collaborate with the Enugu State Government in achieving its mandate and yearly targets.

He assured that the NDE was open for trainings and had the manpower to give indigenes of Enugu State quality skills acqusition, saying this was also in tandem with the agency’s mandate of fighting mass unemployment, with emphasis on self reliance.