Youths in the Niger Delta region have been called upon to change the narrative of being lazy by rechanneling their expertise in some negative tendencies to profitable ventures.
This no doubt will make them become successful innovators in areas of their chosen careers.
The call was made by the chairman of Nigerian Young Professionals Forum, Mr. Moses Sasia, at the second Niger Delta Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) summit, held in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
Speaking on the summit with the theme ‘Stimulating MSME’s growth towards post COVID-19 recovery’, Mr Sasia, a one-time street hawker, before becoming the Chief Executive Officer of a flourishing business conglomerate, noted that the future of the nation lied on the young people.
He said the young people of the region should be focused and enterprising rather than being seen as people only good in social vices.
“What we are doing is to change the narrative of our youths carrying AK 47 and reposition their mindsets towards self-sufficiency. The future of the country lies on the young people and we must build them up,” he said.
“We must introduce digital and industrial revolution in the Niger Delta areas. We must change the negative perception of our young people and make them embrace entrepreneurship,” he said.
According to him, over 300 young people in the region benefited from the first MSME summit of the professionals held in Port Harcourt, River State last year .
He commended the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Managing Director of Blue Carmel Energy, Suleman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote and others, for standing solidly behind the professionals in creating wealth for the people of the Niger Delta.
In his remarks, Yusuf of Blue Carmel Energy, Kaduna, urged the youth not to despair, but to be creative, as their little beginning can grow like an oak.
He called on employers of labour, especially the leadership to create more jobs so that there could be peace in the society.
While appreciating the capital projects being executed by the various state government in the region, Yusuf stressed the need for more capacity building for the young people through empowerment and provision of enabling environment for them to thrive, rather than importing everything from China.
According to him, 60 per cent of his staff strength came from the Niger Delta, adding that more opportunities should be provided to youths of the region to enable them to spring up.
The NCDMB’s Executive Secretary, Wabote, who was represented by Dr Ama Ikuru, reminded youths from the region that the board had funds which they could access to grow their businesses.
“We have series of funds, we have $250 million for the Nigeria content intervention fund with the Bank of Industry (BoI) which Nigerians have been taking to grow their businesses.
“We also have the Nigeria content non oil and gas fund for people who want to set up their plants in our parks,” he said.
Sasia had announced that the Niger Delta Young People forum would disburse the sum of N10 million to young people in the region, especially those in the rural areas this year.
The sum of N500,000 each is expected to go to those who testified as a token for what they have done. More importantly, the traditional way of empowerment is archaic and analog and a lot of development partners have actually kicked against it.