The Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), in the 21 September, 2024 governorship election in Edo state, Dr. Oberaifo Udoh, has explained what he plans to do to solve the problem of unemployment amongst youths if elected governor.
Oberaifo who disclosed this in Benin at the official unveiling of his running mate, Lord Amen Osunde, described his party as the only alternative to rescue Edo and its people from the political, social and economics quagmire it has found itself.
He blamed successive governments’ for the high poverty rate occasioned by bad economic policies, decayed infrastructure and insecurity in the state which he said the APC and PDP have not been able to address, which he said was the reason why Edo has the highest number of youths in the diaspora.
According to Oberaifo, “The only way governments can solve the problems of unemployment and control fiscal policy is to empower the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“When SMEs are empowered and are doing well, they will in turn create jobs, thereby reducing unemployment rates because there will be more jobs for the youths and young school leavers.
“We must empower our small businesses. One of the challenges they face is access to finance and data. When you do that, you will also be able to address and reduce all these problems of high exchange rate of dollars and others.”
“I will want to empower small businesses as I had done from my working experience with MasterCard Foundation as a consultant on the transformation of Nigerian youths programme where MasterCard targeted to revamp over 40,000 small businesses in Nigeria.
“If we have the power, we will focus more on our smes, it is what Lagos did, it is what China did; it is what India did that made them what they are today.
“We have worked with many of them and we’ve seen what their problems are, and we have been able to revamp a lot of them. I have personally trained and mentored many of them to become business owners.
“We know we will be able to do that in full capacity and full scale. It is the easiest way the government can solve the problem of unemployment, control fiscal policy and raise IGR, and that is all what we need to develop our state,” he said.
The governorship hopeful described the defection of his deputy governorship candidate, Lord Amen Osunde, from the Labour Party to AAC, as a big boost to the party and the best the to happen for Edo.
“With the movement of our deputy governorship candidate, Lord Osunde, who before his defection to the party was a staunch member and leader of the Labour Party and Obedient Movement, it tells you that the people want an alternative to APC and PDP.
“As a matter of fact, Osunde was a pioneer member who organized the first two million-man Obedient Movement walk in the state and the structures across the three senatorial districts in the state. He has found it important to join our party. I believe he has made the right choice,” he said.
Source: PM News
