Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has said that his administration in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria, provided interest-free loans for 24,850 youths in the last 4 years.
He made the statement when he honoured an invitation to the Young Journalists’ Forum Monthly Media Dialogue at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Abuja.
Represented by the Osun State Commissioner for Federal Matters, Hon. Idiat Babalola, the governor in his speech titled “Role of Youths in Peace Building in Africa,” harped on the need to develop the capacity of the youths as that is the key to a dynamic economy.
“For us in Osun, youth development and engagement have been given the lion share attention by our administration. Under our school infrastructure development programme, we set out to build 100 brand new state-of-the-art elementary schools, 50 middle schools and 11 high schools have been completed.”
Addressing pressmen at the dialogue, Ecuadorian Ambassador to Nigeria, Leopoldo Rovayo Verdesoto, stressed the need to engage youths in more productive and result-oriented activities in order to keep them from constituting nuisance to their society. The Ambassador who will be ending his tenure in May this year, assured that he would ensure that the monthly media dialogue which holds at his instance at the Embassy, continues with the incoming Ambassador.
President of the Young Journalists Forum, Chukwuma Nzeh, commended the Ecuadorian Ambassador for creating an avenue for the Forum to sit and discuss issues that affect their the youths and the generality of the masses.
