Barrister Uchenna Orji, the Ebonyi state commissioner for Empowerment and Job Creation says the David Umahi-led administration had invested billions of naira to empower Ebonyi people, including another N4 billion Bank of Industry (BoI) loan to create wealth and employment in the state.
In this interview with Sunday Agbo in Abakaliki, Mr. Orji provides perspectives on other empowerment packages of the state government and its development efforts and quests.
How far has the Ebonyi state government gone in the direction of job creation and empowerment?
So far, we have had several empowerment programmes. We have the women and youth empowerment programme where each beneficiary receives N250, 000 [two hundred and fifty thousand naira] with which to start up any business of their choice, including farming.
And this is after they had been trained and equipped with the mental capacity to avail them the effective management skill over the funds.
The state government also intends to empower Ebonyi citizens in the diaspora. How is the implementation going?
This empowerment is for citizens outside the shores of the state, in the major cities of the country. We call it street-to-skill programme and targeted at Ebonyi people hawking on major streets of the country. It has to do with only those seen hawking in the streets but really keen on more dignifying businesses. We select and also train them for capacity building and training before we empower them. So far, we have empowered one hundred and thirty such people in Onitsha and about five hundred and thirty in Lagos. In Onitsha, we have them in what we call tricycle empowerment programme. The idea is that when they are in this scheme, their dignity will be enhanced and their living standard will improve.
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Apart from material empowerment, what other area does the state government empower these people?
We also have specialised mentorship programmes which seeks to discover graduates who have done well in their chosen carriers. When these are identified, particularly those who are jobless, they are trained and we select the best from them. On being selected, they are engaged in different businesses in Ebonyi state. The engineers among those selected are engaged in road construction in the state. Throughout the period of that engagement, they will earn some pay and, by the time they have mastered the job, they will be empowered to go on their own and become employers of labour. Our target is to ensure that these people have the opportunity of employing others that will create wealth and create employment and by that way, we will have economic development.
Much has been said about the loan procured by the state government from the Bank of Industry (BoI). What were the conditions for acquiring the loan?
The BoI loan is for N4 billion and is for the enhancement of entrepreneurship and industrialisation in the state. It is for people who are prepared to do business and once you have your business name or company name, you can access it; the interest is 5% just to help the ordinary person in the street to better his lot. Now, we have a package also for civil servants. There is also a facility for the civil servants in which case their salaries (and pensions and gratuities) will be their collateral. It must interest you to note that the governor has offered himself to be the collateral for the N4 billion naira facility that is to say you do not need any landed property for you to secure this facility. Once you have a good business proposal or plan or couple with the fact that you want to do business in Ebonyi state, the money will be given to you to do your business. We also have other specialised programmes like the horticulture programme. So far, six people have been given six million naira that is one million naira each. They are doing very well and they have been given land after their training.
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What modalities has your ministry put in place to ensure the judicious application of these funds allocated to these beneficiaries?
We do a lot of monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the very objectives of this programme are achieved. It does not just end with planning or execution. We engage in monitoring and evaluation so that we have feedback mechanism to ensure that the objective is achieved.
Let us talk about figures; so far, how many Ebonyi citizens have been empowered?
So far, in the area of youth and women empowerment, three thousand have been empowered while, in the area of widow empowerment, four thousand have been empowered at N100,000 each and a total of N40 million. For youth/women empowerment, we have three thousand persons getting N250,000 each and a total of N750 million. Now, in the area of tricycles for Onitsha, we have one hundred and thirty persons. At seven hundred thousand naira per person, this amounts to N91 million. The ministry is interfacing with other private investors to see how they can help drive these empowerment programmes.
This style of empowerment appears informal sector-based. Does the state government think towards creating paying jobs?
In our quest to address the issue of joblessness and unemployment, we have deliberate programmes that are private sector-based or informal while some are also formal. Like I told you, we have a four billion naira facility that encourages or funds the issue of industry. Any group of persons or individual ready to establish an industry in Ebonyi state can have free to access the fund. The idea is for this to get to many hands – whether a large outfit as industry or small outfit, you are encouraged. We have what we call small medium enterprise which we also encourage. The Ebonyi state government is ready to partner with development partners by way of counterpart funding to ensure that those development partners invest in Ebonyi state and invest in our people. So, we have categories of programmes that encourage industrialisation or establishment of industries and factories in Ebonyi state. In no distant time, we will begin to harvest these employment opportunities in Ebonyi state.
Do you not see the empowerment as going through the back-door to mobilise support for an Umahi 2019 bid?
The governor of the state is a man of his words. He had his clear direction right from May 29, 2015 on where to go in the area of empowerment and total economic development of the state. One of which is this economic empowerment and job creation for our people.
It is not to score a political point. When you do good to the people, it is only reciprocal that the people will come back and say thank you. So, no problem till the end of eight years our programme on empowerment will continue to endure.
What are the criteria for the selection of the beneficiaries if the empowerment programme is not for political patronage?
The only criterion we have is the equality of ward, equality of local government and equality of zones. We select not based on any political consideration. We select based on certain categorisations. I can tell you categorically that the youth and women empowerment was selected based on leadership nominations, from the CAN, from the elders, from the women and from across the various phases of life, we got nominations. We have our criteria. Like I did say, we have our standard, we have our parameters. You must submit your business plan. When you submit it, we must make sure that your business line is in line with the programmes and policies of the state government. What is the policy? It must be a business that will generate job, that will generate wealth and that will bring about wealth creation. So that it not a business that is between you and your profit. Somebody must benefit. Somebody must be employed in the process; then we will approve. The standard must be international. That is to say we have our yardstick. Job must be created and wealth must be created. At the end of the day, you will have food on your table and that is encouraging food sufficiency and food security, in the case of programmes on agriculture.
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What is the rationale of setting up GUMEBA and others vis-a-vis the numerous empowerment programme of the state government because the public considers all these as pressure groups with political intention?
Governor Umahi Beneficiaries Empowerment Association (GUMEBA) is an association that was inaugurated with the core mandate to ensure the effective monitoring and evaluation of all these beneficiaries. My ministry has about 22 number staff members. We cannot go round and, of course, we are not omni-present or omniscient. So, it is through these people that we can know what the beneficiaries of these empowerment programmes scattered across the state are doing in the nooks and crannies of the state. We have our businesses and our farms. I mean the farms that our beneficiaries have fixed. So, who will inspect that on daily basis, how will we know that we have approved the first tranche, how will we know that you have done well that we can approve further? It is through the field soldiers. What they do is like a cooperative activity. On daily basis, they meet. They have a kind of peer review of their businesses; how they are faring, their challenges, problems and prospects. Are there any natural disasters, any attacks and such questions, so, if there are issues and challenges they could not solve, they will return to the ministry and the ministry will liaise appropriately to ensure that the beneficiary gets solution to his/her problems. So, it is a deliberate plan to ensure that the entire beneficiaries are empowered as planned. As I did tell you, we have a data base of 700,000 people who have never benefitted from the ministry’s empowerment programmes. From time to time, if there is any empowerment programme that comes, we will pick from there. As I speak with you, just ten thousand Ebonyi people will benefit from what we call the government enterprises and empowerment programmes of the federal government. How do we get this? It is from the data base so that without wasting time, we can collate, send them text messages for them to come and cash in on the opportunity to better themselves. That is what we are doing. We also have so many other programmes. Just a couple of days ago, the national directorate on employment brought a letter that they were going to train three hundred Ebonyi indigenes in selected areas. And how are we going to get these people? It is from the database. From the information they have given to us. We know those that are qualified, we send them messages. We are already working with all the private institutions. For you to work well in Ebonyi state, you need to have a good relationship with the state government. You must perform your corporate social corporate responsibility; you must also ensure federal character and state character in your employment. We have talked to them and mutually, we have agreed that, for any employment opportunity to be advertised, we need to be notified. We, thus, make it available to our people. We have the chain and the link that can get to everybody and that is the database. And we cannot get it directly from the people. We have to get it from their people and these are the beneficiaries that are scattered all over the 171 wards of Ebonyi state. So, they help us to collate. When we collate these, we will be able to select from time to time so that we can give them opportunity under the empowerment programmes and employment programmes of the state government. So, the GUMEBA people are there not only to help themselves but also to serve as a watchdog to report to us from time to time any person that is not doing it and we will blacklist the person. We cannot do that alone without these people even if we have all the staff in the whole Ebonyi. We cannot do that, however, I must tell you. It is an initiative that was already there by the time I came on board. It is only when I came on board that I got to know that the initiative will help us. It is actually helping us as you can see. Our presence is everywhere. I can stay here and call anybody from any ward. I have the database. I know everybody their ward, their name, their phone number and their guarantor. I also have their pictures. So, I can always call anybody with whatever address within one hour and find out what is happening and that is working for us. It is an outfit that is working very well.
QUOTE 1
“So far, we have empowered one hundred and thirty such people in Onitsha and about five hundred and thirty in Lagos … The idea is that when they are in this scheme, their dignity will be enhanced and their living standard will improve.”
QUOTE 2
“I can tell you categorically that the youth and women empowerment was selected based on leadership nominations, from the CAN, from the elders, from the women and from across the various phases of life, we got nominations. We have our criteria.”
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