Ekiti State Government has employed over 20,000 job seekers into the formal and informal sectors of the State’s economy in the last 18months.
These include over 1,500 Primary School teachers, 500 Secondary School teachers and over 400 workers in various sectors of the State Civil Service.
The State Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun who made this known in Ado Ekiti while featuring in the maiden edition of a bilingual simulcast programme ‘Ekiti loni/Ekiti today’, assured of fairness and transparency in the process of all Government’s employment and empowerment programmes.
Rt. Hon. Olatunbosun stressed that the norm is to advertise vacancies before conducting examinations/interviews to ensure that competent hands are employed for specific public functions.
Emphasizing that no responsible Government would jettison meritocracy on the altar of favoritism and nepotism, Olatunbosun said that the Oyebanji administration takes pain to ensure that the best qualified people are employed into public offices to avoid a possible decrease in productivity and lower quality of work.
He however noted that government’s interventions are not limited to white collar jobs for people to perform professional services, desk, managerial or administrative work that are generally executed in an office or other administrative settings, stressing that Governor Oyebanji administration has several empowerment programmes ranging from agribusiness, small and medium scale enterprises, digital skills training, to skill acquisition for cloth weaving, adire etc as well as artisan training and transfer of knowledge and technology for citizens to leverage on to make themselves self-reliant.
Olatunbosun assured that Government would continue to facilitate grants, soft loans with low interest rate to kick-start and boost medium and small businesses as well as provide regular interventions including free land-clearing and subsidized ploughing, harrowing, in addition to provision of improved seedlings to encourage farming and boost food security.
He highlighted other Government’s interventions to include the ongoing registration by the State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Empowerment of residents of the State interested in various ranges of employment and empowerment to generate a verifiable data that will help to plan for recruitment and empowerment programmes.
According to him, the Knowledge Zone which is also focused on promoting digital innovation and entrepreneurship in the State basically aimed at catalyzing the economic growth of the State and inclusive socio-economic growth for its citizens, foster entrepreneurship, incubate new innovative companies and create conducive environment for emerging knowledge workers to thrive.
Noting that the six developmental pillars of Governor Oyebanji’s administration are interwoven to cover all aspect of life, Olatunbosun stressed the Governor’s commitment to the general wellbeing of the citizens adding that his trip to the United States was centered on exposing the State to the international community and attracting investors particularly the agricultural sector.
He described the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Governor with Cavista Holdings on Agric-Business as a significant milestone that would generate employment and enhance food production in the State, adding that the Governor’s trip has already ignited interest among numerous foreign investors seeking partnership with the State.
He advised people in the State to support efforts of the administration and key into the administration developmental programmes to rapidly developing the State and making life more meaningful for residents.