Ebonyi State Ministry of Human Capital Development and Monitoring, has set out plans to develop 171 Ebonyians, following the political wards in the state.
The new commissioner for Human Capital Development, Dr. Stephen Odoh, revealed this during his official take over from the permanent secretary of the ministry on September 16, 2019.
Dr. Odoh while speaking to journalists shortly after the handover, said one of his agenda for the ministry was what he described as a community approach, through his ward 171 project.
He said the aim was to single out one person per ward for human development since Ebonyi has 171 political wards.
Odoh noted that the fund for the development was not going to come from government coffers, stating that the ministry will mobilize stakeholders from each ward to provide funding.
“Like I was suggesting to them, it could be from the Common Entrance Examination, that has just being taken, pick one child who is very intelligent, ask the stakeholders to create a trust fund for that child and ensure that the trust fund takes care of that child until university level.
“We are going to drive it as a ministry, we are going to be persuading stakeholders to do that, we are going to be pleading with the local government chairmen as usual to cooperate with us, town union presidents, traditional rulers. All our target should be to see a better Ebonyi state through capacity building and empowerment, he stated.
“The commissioner described his appointment to oversee the affairs of the ministry of Human Capital Development as a home coming, adding, traditionally, for the past years I have done so much things in empowerment, in human capital development, and as a Development Economist, I believe that development is important and should be driven by entrepreneurship, job creation, by deliberate planning, and I believe that this ministry would be that drive in the state to ensure that there is obvious mark on our poverty reduction effort, obvious mark on our skill acquisitions, to ensure that our capacity building is given a face lift.
“Sometimes we go to MDAs and a lot of government offices, people are confused on what to do, we need to give direction to the workers, we need to give direction to the public servants, we need to increase their capacity by training and retraining.
“Most times, development does not come by number, it comes by capacity and this ministry will take up that challenge of building capacity for growth. So, Im excited because, Im driven by passion in the Ministry of Education, but Im driven by passion and experience in the Ministry of Human Capital Development, and I know I will bring it to bare”, he noted.
Dr Odoh and his team also visited small and medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigerias office located at Ezza Road Abakaliki, where they met with the General Manager of the Agency, Asochukwu chidozie Thedus.
At the agency, he appealed to him to help the ministry in making sure that every Ebonyi youth is strategically engaged.
Adding that there is need to teach Ebonyians to be independent by training them to be skillful.
On his part, the General Manager expressed his joy over the appointment of Dr. Odoh to handle the ministry.
He said the commissioner has been given them assistance personally and being made the commissioner of Human Capital Development, he is sure Dr. Odoh would deliver.
He promised to work in partnership with the ministry to lift Ebonyi from where it is now to another greater level.
“We will link you up to our own office to help empower Ebonyians”, he assured.
