Sam Philip
As Governor Alex Otti of Abia State still sustained embargo on employment, he offered 19 youths who performed best in a digital training programme organized by the state government.
Abia State government, the 17 local government areas of the state in collaboration with a local digital firm, LearnFactory Nigeria trained the youths in various areas of Information Communication Technology (ICT), including Digital Animation, Artificial intelligence, among others.
Announcing the automatic employment, during the graduation ceremony of the trainees at Abia TechRise ICT training Centre held in Umuahia, Governor Otti directed the state Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Benson Ojeikere to prepare the necessary documents of the 19 best graduands for necessary approval and ensure that they commence work on Monday, May, 12, 2025.
“There are about 16 of you in those three groups. I also saw that there are three of you that received awards now. And that takes the number to 19.
“And, I would like to instruct the Head of Service to work with the Commissioner for Science, Technology and Innovation. And of course the Chief Information Officer to ensure that the 19 of you start work with the Abia Civil Service.
“The effective date is Monday, 12th May. Head of service, please prepare your documentation, so that I would temporarily lift the ban on employment to employ them and close it back,” the governor said.
Moreover, another set of 850 trainees, 50 persons from each local government area, were ordered by the governor to be trained in the second batch of the ICT training.
He said: “Rather than giving you fish, which is what we have said in our manifesto, we want to give you all the necessary instruments and the training so that you can catch fish yourself. We want to empower you so that you can look after yourself.
“We want you to create jobs for yourself. Gone are the days of keke empowerment. Today, the empowerment is to use what you have. What God has deposited in you. There is nobody that you can write off.
“The skills that you have acquired today can take you to places, because that is what the world is saying today.
“And you can sit here and work for Google, Microsoft, anywhere. So, you are not limited to this space, because of the knowledge that you have acquired.”