Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia says 700,000 new jobs will be created in the state in the next 10 years as part of deliberate efforts to address the challenges of insecurity and socio-economic unrest.

Ikpeazu revealed this when he fielded questions from State House correspondents on Sunday in Abuja bordering on President Muhammadu Buhari’s inaugural speech at the National Economic Council (NEC).

Buhari had on Thursday in his inaugural speech at the 2019 – 2023 NEC challenged state governors to pay more attention on education and infrastructural development; security, agriculture and health.

However, the governor identified the decay in education as well as the increasing rate of unemployment across the country as a time bomb that must be addressed by all tiers of government and the private sector.

According to him, Abia State government on its part has keyed into the Federal Government’s wider plan to address the problem of youth unemployment through its Enyimba Economic City project.

“I want to say this to all of us – by 2030 the population of Nigeria would double. So the ticking timing bomb is not the decay in infrastructure. The time bomb is education and unemployment and it speaks to everything including crime.

“So, in Abia we are planning to create 700,000 jobs in 10 years. Certainly I will not be governor in the next 10 years but we are planning ahead for the whole good people of Abia State that will come tomorrow or after us.

“And until we continue to plan or begin to plan ahead not for the next election but for the next generation we will not be able to do anything futuristic in our socio-economic development in Nigeria.

“So, the Enyimba Economic City is doing very well. We are happy and glad that the enthusiasm of investors outside Nigeria is overwhelming.

“So, our target is to create 700,000 jobs in 10 years and to also create a centre from where people can manufacture and export without paying anything,’’ he said.

The governor disclosed that the Abia Shoe Factories were being upgraded and modernised with latest shoe making equipment and facilities to meet international specifications.

“We want our shoemakers to begin to compete with the best shoemakers in the world and it will happen – there is a Brazilian Shoe Factory already that has taken stock of the quantity of shoes that we bought through Alaba (market) into Nigeria on monthly basis and they are prepared to reach MoU with importers to supply all those shoes.

“So, we are going to give the Chinese a good run for their money because the option we are providing includes shoes from Brazil,’’ he added.

According to the governor, the state government has embarked on massive construction and rehabilitation of network of roads as the economy of the state largely depends on influx of over 25 million people into the state, annually.

“We have a catchment business population of about 25 million that come to do business within Abia state – 60 per cent (of the people) come from the Port Harcourt axis; 30 per cent from Calabar – Akwa Ibom axis and the remaining 10 per cent from everywhere including Cameroun and other parts of Nigeria,’’ he said.

https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/well-create-700000-new-jobs-to-address-insecurity-in-abia-ikpeazu/cescc06

Sure, he's joking. Ikpeazu we know is not serious ooo.

Shut up ikpeazu. Repair all the damaged street lights in umuahia first. Las Las na another governor go complete that Eyinmba Economic city project.

We will, after four years already? It seems this pot bellied fool thinks with his anus.

This man's level of lying to the public just rendered me speechless.

I know Abia state as people that deals on clothing and footwear

Does it mean that they have started planting weed in their government house

Security to protect how many litres of kerosene

useless man

Solidkay:
This man's level of lying to the public just rendered me speechless.

Maybe you should research about what the governor is talking about, before running your mouth.

“I want to say this to all of us – by 2030 the population of Nigeria would double. So the ticking timing bomb is not the decay in infrastructure. The time bomb is education and unemployment and it speaks to everything including crime-Okezie Ikpeazu PH.d.

Ikpeazu is a fool.

Another round loading

How will you create 700,000 jobs in the next 10 years when in 3 years years to come you will be ex governor and the EFCC will come after you. ...

He can actually avoid to distribute kerosene to 700000 Abians in next 10 years. Don't criticize him, he knows what he is saying.

Please I just want to correct the notion that an igbo Man who makes Money is a ritualistic
WHO IS AN IGBO MAN?
LISTEN CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU CALL THEM RITUALISTIC BECAUSE NOTHING LIKE THAT.
1. The Igbo man is that man that will leave his Father's land.... Come to your Father's land and turn you into his tenant.... Peacefully ooooo
2. The Igbo man doesn't like so much noise, if you're not talking money.... You're making noise... He believes in "Ego n'ebi okwu"...
3. The Igbo man goes to Obodo oyibo. He doesn't know anybody there. Give him 6 months, he will start sending cars back home.
4. The Igbo man can wear slippers, use Nokia torch phones and may even be riding ladies machine but the figures that is in his bank account will be enough to write a full maths textbook.
5. The Igbo man gets rich. Go to the village, pick village boys, train them in business, settle them, the boys become rich, goes to the village do the same thing..... It's not magic..
6. The Igbo man, where you see nothing, he sees market. You're looking at an evil forest, he's looking at an estate, you're looking at a village girl, he's seeing a sales girl. You're looking at shit, he's seeing manure.
7. The Igbo man is not a ritualist. He's the man that kept going when others turned back. He's the man that enters a country where they say nobody survives. He's not a risk taker, he's the Risk himself!!
8. The Igbo man loves 'Njakili' (healthy jests) no matter how rich you're, if your mouth is not sharp, you will always be a subject of Laughter among your peers especially in "ime affia" or Umunna meeting"
9. The Igbo man believes in Training his children properly with good morals no matter how wealthy he is.... He will still nurture you to stand up for yourself because he understands he won't be here forever.
10. The Igbo man is not lazy.... He toils day and night in order for his children not to go through what he went through...
11. The Igbo man wakes up with money in his mind.... That's why they don't greet "Good morning".... They greet "Money nwannem"
12. The Igbo man Prefers a Customer to a girlfriend..... He can walk away from any girlfriend because a particular customer came to the shop...
13. The Igbo man knows how to do "Uto Nwannu" They love and appreciate themselves in diaspora.... That's why an Igbo can stand and spray a friend 2million naira.... Because they believe that "ihe imere nwanne gi but nga jidere m"
14. The Igbo man speaks Oral igbo..... If igbo man sings praises to you as his wife in dialect, you will melt and melt again
15. The Igbo man believes in "Iru uno" (going back home) .... No matter how busy an Igbo man is, he must take his family back home at times.
16. The Igbo man believes in "bili kam bili"... Live and let live... He obeys the rules of your land. Just allow him do his business, make his money and go... He can even marry your daughter just to have his way..
17. The Igbo man, when he enters an occasion, he doesn't need your food or drinks to be happy... He only needs the MC to recognize him and hail him by his titles, ife emebe!
18. Finally Any country you enter and you don't see The Igbo man..... Just know that you're no longer on earth, you are at underworld...
God bless igbo indigene's
Otutu Oma
Igbo Kwenu!!!