Akeredolu pledges to leverage entrepreneurship for poverty eliminating in Ondo

The governor of the Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has renewed his commitment towards the eradication of poverty in the state as he reeled out his administration’s eight-point agenda leveraging entrepreneurship, knowledge economy, innovation and technology to achieve a poverty free state.

Akeredolu stated this at the inaugural Unemployment Summit organised by the Ondo State Entrepreneurship Agency (ONDEA) that was held in Akure, where he disclosed that his administration is determined to creating jobs and reducing extreme poverty, and several initiatives targeted at jobs opportunities for the youth, women and vulnerable groups remain top.

Akeredolu stated that he is ready to invest more in entrepreneurship development and provide startup funds for persons with entrepreneurship skills that are badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have always been concerned that the only enduring solutions to the unemployment issues are for our youth to embrace entrepreneurial development,” he said.

According to the governor, entrepreneurship development plays a vital role in job creation and poverty alleviation. He posits that one of the many initiatives of his administration is the Unemployment Summit 2021, which is aimed at addressing unemployment as a challenge and proffering practical solutions.

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Folorunso Alakija, the keynote speaker, said that to foster economic growth and engender business knowledge transfer for indigenous-based entrepreneurs, MSMEs and job seekers need to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

“A lot of people might not know the importance now, the fact about entrepreneurship is that it is the engine that creates new jobs and it is a great panacea for economic development,” she said.

Summy Smart Francis, the special adviser on entrepreneurship development to the Ondo State governor, said Ondo State government is determined to create more Job makers who can maximize the opportunities within the state as well as contribute their quota to improving the IGR of the state, while changing the narrative of Ondo from being a ‘civil servant state’ to a commercial state.

“As the Grand Matron of the largest Entrepreneurship network in Africa – Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs (A.Y.E) Organisation, we are building the right foundation and it would take some time before we can achieve this,” said Francis.

He posits that entrepreneurship is a great panacea for unemployment and the vices associated with it. Hence, the state cannot continue to handle the issue of unemployment in the country with kid gloves. “I believe that unemployment in the country will be put to rest; the ball has been set rolling,” Francis stated.