My priority: Engaging youths, keeping them in employment —Okowa

GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, yesterday, said that engaging the youths and creating jobs for them through the different youths employment and wealth creation programmes was among the top priorities of his administration. Speaking in Asaba when he received a team of World Bank, European Union and Federal Government officials who were in the state to assess the level of implementation of State Employment and Expenditure For Results, SEEFOR, projects, Okowa called for spirited efforts to get the youths engaged meaningfully to check restiveness and criminality in the country. He said: “We thank the World Bank for the efforts, but there are still very big gaps in our country and we know that partnering the private sector as a state, we would be able to find other means to fill the gaps that are still existing in the area of youth unemployment because, once we are able to do that, we would be able to sustain the security and peace that we have in the state. “We are happy with the partnership between World Bank and the European Union, we are happy that the youth empowerment component is working in Delta State as over 700 youths have been trained and empowered through this partnership.”