Governor Hope Uzodimma unveiled this plan in his address during a virtual conference of the state’s notable economic stakeholders with the theme: “Agenda for Imo State Post-COVID Economy”. The conference, which held yesterday attracted over 280 prominent Imo people online.
The governor was glad that IEDI under the chairmanship of Prof Maurice Iwu had such prominent Imo personages like the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Neajuba; Chairman, Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh; public health specialist and senior health economist, Dr Francis Ukwujie; renowned economist, banker and lawyer, Dr Emeka Osuji and notable entrepreneur, Chinyere Mba-Uzoukwu, among many others as participants.
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Uzodimma who observed that COVID-19 had wreaked havoc on global and national economies, however, assured that under his watch as governor, no stone would be left unturned in securing a post-COVID self-reliant and resilient economy for the state, adding that his government’s three ‘R’ Programme of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Recovery was poised to achieve economic repositioning of the state.
He declared: “In this respect I propose to reposition the state economy through the active participation of the private sector. We already have in place an Imo State investment agency which will henceforth partner with IEDI to work out ways we can create sustainable employments for our people beyond COVID-19.”
The governor outlined the major task of the conference as how the stakeholders can fashion a blueprint to empower at least 300,000 youths, particularly graduates for self employment, help farmers secure agric loan facilities, as well as partner with government to reposition the education sector for world class quality learning.
He noted that with his government’s rehabilitation of Adapalm and the reactivation of public water supply, as well as other industry-based initiatives of his government, the state’s public sector was poised to generate about 100,000 employments in the next three years.
He added that the challenge for the leaders, working with the government, was to create 500,000 jobs for Imo people in the next three years, through youth empowerment by accessing funds from both the public and private sectors, as well as sourcing agric financial facilities for farmers.
According to him, all the measures are aimed at creating 500,000 jobs in the state in the next three years.
He announced that his government would set up an Imo Economic Development Agency comprising members of IEDI and the government to drive the actualisation of the plan for sustainable economic growth of the state.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Chairman of IEDI, Prof Iwu had said that the conference was convened for Imo stakeholders to put heads together on how to restart the Imo economy for self-sufficiency beyond COVID-19.
THE SUN, NIGERIA
