Otti Reaffirms Commitment To Youth Empowerment, Economic Growth As Abia Partners UNDP

Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to youth empowerment and economic development .

Otti disclosed this on Thursday evening as he received delegations from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) .

During the meeting with officials of the Office of the Vice President and UNDP, Governor Otti assured of Abia State’s readiness to participate in the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) 2.0, a Federal Government youth employment initiative coordinated by the Office of the Vice President and implemented by UNDP with funding from the European Union.

“We are not taking the issue of the youths lightly, that is why this programme aligns strategically with our own thinking,” he said .

He added that youth development remains central to his administration’s agenda, noting that Abia had already begun similar interventions with the Abia Tech Rise program before the launch of NJFP.

“The Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme 2.0 sounds to me like a programme that was adopted from here, because even before you came, we already had started doing something.”

He stressed that graduates must be equipped with practical skills to function productively in society.

“There’s a programme we call the TechRise programme, where we train our young people, and 510 youths graduated in the first batch, while 849 completed the second phase focused on the digital economy,” he said.

He identified the digital economy as the priority sector for Abians, creative economy and other sectors .

On leadership development, he added that the state introduced a Leadership Academy for young people, and the programme has run two streams and graduated about a thousand young people.

Governor Otti also emphasised the need to bridge education and employability, saying, “I’ve always held the view that after the gown, you need to integrate it with the town,” adding that there must be “that integration between the town and the gown.”

He subsequently directed the Principal Secretary and Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, to work with the visiting team.
Earlier, UNDP Team Lead, Mr. Innocent Ejolu, said the delegation came to discuss how Abia could scale and sustain youth employment.

“This is a new phase designed to deploy 20,000 fellows annually nationwide with deeper skills, smarter matching, and stronger retention, with Abia’s co-investment, we can scale from hundreds to nearly thousands of fellows.”

Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Delivery and Coordination, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Akubo Adegbe, said past national programmes failed due to weak implementation.

“The only way to make sure it does not follow the path of programmes that have come and gone is to ensure that the implementation of the programme is domesticated,” he stated.

Later the same day, Governor Otti received a delegation of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), led by its President and Chairman of Council, Prof. Pius Olarenwaju, who commended the Governor for what he described as significant economic progress recorded in Abia State.

“You have achieved, within this short time, notable economic progress, this includes a 10 per cent GDP increase, an eight per cent poverty reduction, attraction of significant investment and creation of over 10,000 jobs.

We have heard about it in the newspapers, but it is more glorious for us to see it and also go back to tell more people,” Prof. Olarenwaju said.

He also commended security efforts in the state, especially the activities of the operation crush, describing the initiative as evidence of purposeful governance.

“Operation Crush has improved security in the state and boosted youth confidence and economic activities.

“You are representing us well, someone who made a mark in the banking industry and is also doing well in government,” he said.

He called for deeper collaboration in financial literacy and inclusion, that there is a conditioned precedent to financial inclusion, and that is financial literacy.

He disclosed that CIBN plans to train 10 million women and youths nationwide and urged Abia State to partner in the programme.

Responding, Governor Otti reaffirmed his commitment to sustained partnership with the institute.

“The institute’s programme on financial inclusion and financial literacy for members of the public is very important,” he said, adding that even experienced professionals still make financial mistakes due to lack of knowledge.

“You find that even for those of us who claim that we have some knowledge, we still make mistakes not deliberately, but because we don’t know,” Otti stated