The Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Abibat Sonaike-Ayodeji, has commended the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, over the establishment of Abia State Education for Employment (E4E) Agency and urged him to share the concept with other state governors.
Speaking at a dinner where she hosted Mr. Endi Ezengwa, coordinator of the agency, at her residence in Manila, Philippines, the ambassador commended Ikpeazu for providing numerous opportunities for the youths in the state through the agency. She therefore encouraged the governor to share the vision with his peers at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
In 2015, Ikpeazu established the E4E programme to harness and maximise the human resource capital base of the state, grow the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector of the economy and improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)
The programme, which is anchored by the agency, has attracted two World Bank assisted projects to support its objectives one of which is the development of the state’s technical colleges in terms of physical infrastructure, improve quality of the teachers and adequacy of equipment for training.
The governor’s first intervention through the agency was at Boys’ Technical College, Aba, where he fenced the institution, provided a dedicated transformer and restored electricity after its absence for seven years. He also refurbished existing buildings and completed new ones.
It is in recognition of his efforts in this area that the Federal Ministry of Education through the World Bank decided to support the development of at least three of these colleges to world class standard through the Innovation Development Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project.
To ensure best outcomes, the governor sent Ezengwa, the Coordinator of the agency, who is also the Focal Person for IDEAS project to engage the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) of the Philippines. The aim is to establish an exchange programme for the training of technical teachers in order to meet the acute shortage of requisite personnel in technical colleges in the state. TESDA is behind the success story of skilled Filipinos meeting various human resource needs of several high ranking organisations all over the world.
The Nigerian Embassy in the Philippines, acting on the governor’s request is helping to ensure that these objectives are met.
