By: Promise Dekoo
Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Dr. Gift Worlu has raised the bar once again by setting up a Business and Economic Forum in the LGA.
Speaking during the event in Port Harcourt, the Chairman described Obio/Akpor as one of the most populous, vibrant, and viable Local Government Areas in Nigeria, noting that it boasts a heterogeneous spread of over three million people, thousands of Nano, micro, small, medium and big business and emerging entrepreneurs, thousands of pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions of learning and several military, police and other paramilitary posts, staions and bases.
Obio/Akpor is also the gateway to the capital city of Port Harcourt and part of the Greater Port Harcourt Metropolis, he added.
According to Worlu, OBEF is conceived as a structured quaterly platform where business, politics, the intelligentsia and the broader stakeholder community intersect and interact towards building and sustaining a better society.
He therefore added that OBEF will serve three critical purposes which includes to create a structured platform for engagement between local government and the stakeholder community where opportunities and challenges can be openly discussed and practical solutions co-created, promote a business friendly environment by listening to concerns, inproving policies, strengthening institutional support system including digital platforms for permits, payments and approvals that enable business and institutions, as well as households to thrive in an increasingly tech-driven economy.
He also said the forum would encourage shared responsibility for development where businesses operating within Obio/Akpor actively contribute to the socio-economic advancement of the community through policy compliance, job creation and corporate social responsibility initiatives and where the contributions of business organizations to the communities are appreciated by authorities and vice versa.
Vice Chancellor, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Professor Okechukwu Onuchuku, while delivering a keynote address on the topic: “Role of Critical Stakeholders in Shaping the Local Economy “, encouraged all industries, business organizations operating within the environment in collaboration with the local government to set-up ICT Units for the students schooling in rural areas, giving them access to computers which is required for writing JAMB, WASSCE and other examinations.
”The lack of necessary skills and education within the local government workforce prevents the development of a modern diverse economy ” he added.
Onuchuku also said that the Local Governmthat should evelop programs that will absorb the youths as that is the only way security can be guaranted and youths restiveness eradicated in the society.
