No govt’s assets will be allowed to waste — Otti

To align with the State Government’s agenda for revitalizing struggling companies and ensuring that no state-owned assets are wasted, the government announced that plans are in advanced stages to revitalize Abia Hotels Limited in Umuahia.

Addressing the press on Monday on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council, EXCO meeting chaired by the state governor, Alex Otti, the Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu informed, “the recovery process of that facility has reached an advanced stage, and further details about that process will be unfolded in due course to the press”.

Under the watch of Gov. Otti, the commissioner said, “no government asset will be allowed to waste, or be misappropriated by government officials, as was the case in the past”.

He used the opportunity to announce that the State Government has fully delivered and installed its material testing laboratory, stating, “We are happy to announce that the laboratory is fully installed and is up and running now.

“The lab has the capacity for the following services: Concrete Testing, Soil Testing, Aggregate Testing, Asphalt Flexible Pavement Testing, Steel Reinforcement Testing, Non-Destructive Testing, and Field Testing, among so many other capabilities. The installation of this lab will ensure very high quality of engineering and building projects in the state. That is the very essence of the establishment of that testing lab”.

He also disclosed that the Abia Techrise ICT Training Cohort 2 is ongoing and has reached an advanced stage for the training to commence. The verification of candidates out of 850 applicants have been concluded at the respective local government areas.

The training for the successful applicants he said, will commence in September, explaining, “this program, of course, is part of the State Government’s agenda to empower our team in youth with ICT skills. We prepare them to be relevant in the 21st century.

“This program will increase the state’s digital workforce, will increase youth empowerment and digital literacy, and generally enhance opportunities for further job creation in the state. What the government expects them to do, they must not restrict the training to themselves. They are encouraged to use the opportunity of scaling through and being selected in the first instance to train other people so that this will trickle down to many other youths in the state.

“If you recall also, the first cohort, when they graduated, Gov. Otti graciously offered automatic employment to 19 of those participants. I believe in this second cohort, it will be no different”.

He further informed, “In furtherance of the food security program in the agricultural sector, the State Ministry of Local Government is working in cohort with the local government areas on the East Agricultural Intervention Project”, stating also, “this is a project that is being jointly executed by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the LGAs.

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