The Federal Government has indicated interest to partner Concept Amadeus Limited in the training of Nigerian youths on commercial fishing, ship and vessel building, aimed at job creation in the country.
This was disclosed by the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, during a meeting with a delegation of foreigners of Greek nationals, facilitated by Concept Amadeus Limited.
The leader of the delegation, Prince Patrick Osobase, was at the Minister’s office in company of the foreigners who, according to him, are the technical partners in charge of training the youths on the capacity building project.
The Minister of State said the Federal government would be interested to collaborate with the company on the project for the benefit of Nigerians, as long as the terms of the project would be acceptable to the government.
“The Federal Government (FG) has to know in clear terms what the obligations of government entail, the categories of people to be trained and if the use of government’s skills acquisition centres would be required”, he stated.
Keyamo noted that the interest of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in the project is the skills acquisition component, which is one of the mandates of the Ministry. “FG has decided that the best way to lift people out of poverty is not only to give them letters of employment but to provide them with skills to make them entrepreneurs”, he said.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Prince Patrick Osobase said the team was in the Ministry to seek its cooperation on the project, which is aimed at providing a platform for Nigerians to be entrepreneurs and businessmen.
Osobase disclosed that the company intends to train Nigerian youths in commercial fishing, ship-building, vessel-construction and investment in warehouses. He said with the Federal government ratification of new boundaries, the country now has an opportunity to tap into the blue ocean economy.
Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, noted the President’s passion about employment, and the company’s readiness to work with the Ministry on the aspect of employment.
According to him, “ships and vessel will be built in Nigeria. Nigerians will be trained in the country on commercial fishing and this will give the country larger opportunities to engage the citizens, especially the youths, in modern ways of fishing that can take them out of unemployment”.
He said the group had met with other Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as well as the Legislature, who had bought-in into the project. “Mr. President has launched the project as one of the arms of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). It is a nationally accepted project and the company is ready to work with the Ministry to get the Nigerian youths out of unemployment”, he added.
Other members of the delegation include the technical partners – Emmanouil Kafouros, Anastasios Eleftheriou, Professor Georgios Salachas and Ioannis Melissourgakis.