By MUFTAU OGUNYEMI

Ondo State government is set to create no fewer than 11,000 jobs for the teeming unemployed youth across all 18 local government areas of the state.

The Special Adviser to Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu on Entrepreneurship Development, Mr Summy Francis, Mr Summy Francis, made this known while speaking with newsmen on Friday in Akure.

Francis said that the jobs would be created through the establishment of creative sustainable initiatives under the State Entrepreneurship Agency (ONDEA).

According to him, Akeredolu, who has always been an advocate of job creation and poverty eradication through entrepreneurship development, has expressed his passion for economic development through the creation of ONDEA.

Francis explained that plans were ongoing to host an unemployment summit in September to identify and access the various job creation initiatives, opportunities and programmes being made available by different stakeholders.

He noted that the summit would also serve as a platform to creatively provide data that could constructively inform strategic decisions as it concerned unemployment in the state.

“The summit will be a climax of many of the state’s entrepreneurship development activities and initiatives for 2021. This will be kick-started with a set of pre-summit programmes from May to September.

“The pre-summit programme will be held across all the 18 LGAs, giving equal opportunities to youths in all strata of the society. Application will be made online and offline in all the local government secretariats.

“All unemployed youths, citizens and residents of the state are advised to visit www.ondea.ng/jobs to apply for the programme that best suits their profiles,” he said.

According to him, the initiative will help retrain and reposition youths for earning legitimately online.

“There is also a programme, aimed at re-positioning rural traders to become more productive by taking advantage of the available scarce resources and the vast market in the state, particularly trading across borders, through collaborations and deliberate market segmentation.

“This programme will include creation of agropreneurs who will engage in crop production, cattle rearing and fishery, among others,” he said. (NAN)

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