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No fewer than 350 youths from the seven local government areas that make up the Kwara South Senatorial District are to benefit from the Digital Skill Technology programme scheduled for the Offa and Environs Innovation Hub, Kwara State.
Senator Oyelola Ashiru, the Deputy Senate Leader and Senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, disclosed this during a visit to ONIEH.
Our correspondent learnt that the programme, which is one of the 10-year development plans of the people of Offa, is located in the Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State.
However, the Senator appealed to students and parents in the Senatorial zone to encourage their children to familiarise themselves with Information Communication Technology application if they must benefit from the scheme.
Ashiru, who said he was amazed at the level of infrastructural development in the Hub, maintained that the remarkable accomplishments and the widespread support received by the innovation hub from the people are impressive.
“I am marvelled with what I saw here today. The future of Offa is not on the streets but here, and it must not be allowed to die,” the lawmaker stated.
He added, “It is crucial for other communities to learn from this initiative and work towards creating a better future for the next generation. I am not here for marketing purposes but rather to encourage other communities to follow the path of development that Offa Local Government has undertaken.”
Continuing, Ashiru stressed, “Because of the shared prosperity of Kwara South Senatorial District, I will sponsor the training of 350 people from my senatorial district, this set of people will be fully trained and accommodated.
“The trainees will be selected from the seven local government areas of the Senatorial zone, transported, fed, and accommodated during the course of the training,” the federal lawmaker assured further.
Dr Waheed Olagunju, the ONIEH Governing Board Chairman, described the vicinity as a Multipurpose Industrial Park, of which ONIEH is just one of the many facilities that will make up the park.
He noted that other facilities will include the centre for management development, sports academy, and an industrial incubation centre.
He insisted that ONEIH and its subsidiaries were part of Offa’s Ten Year Development Plan (2022 – 2032) that was launched in Offa in December 2022.
“What we are doing here is the implementation of aspects of the ten year development plan which is in line with the Nigeria National Development Plan 2021 – 2025, the United Nations’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2063 of the African Union and the High 5s of the African Development Bank. All we are trying to do is to ensure our people become productive.
“Luckily for us, as we were concluding the development plan, the National Bureau of Statistics released a report on multi dimensional poverty index in Nigeria and that provided the areas affected by Senatorial Districts. We studied the report on Kwara South Senatorial District and the identified shortcomings as well as recommendations and incorporated them in the Offa ten-year development plan.
“That plan is meeting with the needs of the people, in terms of health care education amongst others.
“All groups in Offa are now taking cue from the development plan. It is only when our people are healthy and mentally developed that they will be physically developed. In view of the link between nutrition and health, agriculture is important and captured. It is when they are well fed and healthy and mentally sound that they can absorb education, training, and become skillful. If the trio are met, they will become productive and earn income.
“It is when they earn incomes that they can meet the basic needs of life that poverty will reduce when people earn income,” Olagunju concluded.
Engr. Jide Olatunde, the ONIEH Chief Operating Officer, while conducting Ashiru and his entourage round the facilities took them to Kola Balogun center, which has the hard ware and soft ware rooms while the senator also visited the coding session of the hub, the drone fabrication and assemblage room, and a photography session at the signage displaying the first PCB production of the hub.
There was also the presentation of books, by the governing board to the Senator while on the entourage were Hon. Seun Ogunniyi, Kwara State House of Assembly Member, Representing Ojomu/Balogun Constituency in Offa Local Government Area, Deputy Rector (Academics), Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Dr. Mulikat Aliyu and the Vice-Chancellor, Summit University, Professor Musa Aibinu.
Others on the entourage were Aare Adeoti, Chief Sunday Olosunde, Alhaji Raji Bolaji both Senior Legislative Assistants to the Deputy President of the Senate and Hon. Tajudeen Abioye, among others.