Guber Poll: How I plan to create jobs in Anambra, by Orajiaka

Our Reporter

As the race for the seat of power in Anambra State gathers more steam, leading aspirant under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Paul Orajiaka has reeled out more details of how he plans to tackle the key issues of employment in the state.

In his earlier address to residents of the state, Orajiaka had revealed his plan to solve the problem of insecurity, health and electricity in the state through his Security, Health, Electricity, Employment, Education and Road, SHEEER, agenda.

Speaking on Thursday on how he intends to create jobs for the teaming unemployed youth population in the state, Orajiaka said his approach would be to create an enabling environment for both the public and private sector to thrive noting that a strong collaboration is required between the government and private sector.

He said: “It is assumed that the private sector is better at identifying business problems and opportunities than are governments. Such collaboration will reduce the information asymmetry between the public and private sectors as they exchange information frequently for the greater good of the state.

“Anambra like every other state of the federation has three senatorial districts but what makes Anambra special is that her three senatorial districts have distinct comparative advantages unlike most other states. So, our plan will be to focus and enhance the potential in each senatorial zone looking at mechanized agriculture in the north, information technology in the central and industrialisation in the south of the state.

“Our plan will be to develop an ecosystem to support the growth of the potential of each senatorial district and build a short, medium and long term developmental focus for the State to align the agricultural belt, the information technology and the industrial zone of the state.

“On the agricultural belt, we will create access to market for the farm produce, encourage mechanization, improve storage facilities and setting up a community board that will be commercially run and saddled with the responsibility for buying the produce from the farmers and granting them access to not just local market but as well as open them up to foreign markets. An independent fund to co-invest with private equity funds will be launched to encourage promising local farmers to mechanize their operation supply chain management.

“On the IT zone our plans will be to develop incubation centres, with fast broadband connection, social facilities, financing and tax breaks for reputable IT companies willing to establish an operational base in the state. We will establish an IT development seed funding program in conjunction with established venture capital firms to match investments from foreign venture capital firms with Anambra technology startups.

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“On the technical belt, I understand that there already exist clusters of small firms undertaking significant technical development in the State. However, key challenges such as funding, basic amenities, access to markets and access to modern technology and information, has not allowed them to achieve their full potential.

“To tackle the funding challenge, we plan the establishment of a funding process in conjunction with several banks where our government will provide guarantees to the Bank to facilitate the funding at lower rates. Establishment of a technical institute will be amongst our plans in the zone to train the labour for the factories and disseminate modern information to firms. Ultimately, we will partner with established companies with significant skill sets in relevant industries to set up bases in the Anambra and pair them with local firms.

“Anambra State unemployment statistics is presently not the best. We can do better. Government cannot employ everyone so my approach would be to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive. The ease of doing business in the state is very poor, so we will dismantle all the obstacles that hamper private investors and investments from thriving in the state. Ndi Anambra are naturally talented entrepreneurs, and this calls for the need to unveil all incentives to encourage business owners in the state so the significant potential of the state can be unlocked.”