Governor Udom Emmanuel will flag off a tooth pick and pencil manufacturing company in Akwa Ibom towards the end of November 2016.
This was revealed on Monday by the Coordinator of AKEES and Senior Special Assistant to the Akwa Ibom State Governor on Due Process and Technical Matters, Elder Ufot Ebong [pictured above] at a Press Conference to open a month long special accountability programme of AKEES, projected under a campaign tagged #AkeesSoFar.
“The container bringing the machinery has just arrived Tin Can Island” Ebong announced.
AKEES, Akwa Ibom Enterprise and Employment Scheme, is a brain child of the Governor, and was initiated soon after resuming office mid-2015.
The programme has recorded resounding success in enabling the start-up and reinforcement of over 85 businesses in the State, with over 1500 gainfully employed, records revealed in a press release issued at the press conference.
Elder Ebong, while reeling out a rundown list of few of the businesses impacted by AKEES, picked out a particular enterprise started by young Akwa Ibom people under AKEES, that charges #3000 per year to polish shoes for individuals.
Analyzing, that although the amount they charged was friendly, the group have the capacity to sign up over 100,000 beneficiaries of their service, and which would make them millionaires in an ingenious business initiative.
“My aim is that whenever there is a political rally in the state, Akwa Ibom youths will not be present.
“When I’m asked, I will say, they are too busy to come. They are at work. And that is what the Governor wants.”
Governor Udom is encouraging SMEs by initiating policies and programmes targeted at engendering the development of the non-oil sectors where SMEs are dominant players.
There will be an ICT training programme on the 31st of October 2016 at the Onyeama Ogechukwu Hall, UniUyo by 10am and a mini-trade fair to showcase businesses tagged AKEES BUSINESS FAIR
A Review of the milestones and achievements of Akwa Ibom Enterprise and Employment Scheme:
BACKGROUND
The focus of governance in Akwa Ibom State principally has been on industrialization and job creation.
This made it absolutely necessary to establish a programme that will engage the skills, ideas, capacities and productive endeavours of Akwa Ibom people towards inspiring an industrial revolution from down up.
In the last 15 months, AKEES has sought to get young people off the streets and into work through trainings, partnerships, franchise schemes, internships and specially designed enterprise development schemes.
#AkeesSoFar, which represents a story of progress, has been resounding success.
Guided by the objective to reduce youth unemployment by 50% by 2020, through the development of youth entrepreneurs, AKEES has begun to impact whole industries in the sub-region in just one year.
Over 1500 have been employed; over 85 businesses have been either created or reinforced.
4 ENTERPRISE ACTIVATION MODELS OF AKEES
– Micro-Franchising: This model allows beneficiaries of the AKEES programme to own their individual businesses through small scale partnerships and business-based authorization.
– Enterprise programmes: Here, individuals are enabled and supported to start their businesses for the meeting of certain needs in the marketplace.
It allows for start-ups in other parts of the country to consider doing business with the ones domiciled in Akwa Ibom State.
– Job Programmes: The question of unemployment depends largely on the employability of the jobless.
This is why AKEES has a programme designed to equip youths with the requisite skill-sets for diverse industries.
– Common facility & Equipment Centres: Having studied prototypes functional in emerging economies of the world, this model was developed to encourage the formation of industry clusters all over the state.
Merits are that individual entrepreneurs that belong to the same industries can utilize the same facilities and apparatuses for their different production operations.
SUCCESS STORIES INDUSTRY BY INDUSTRY
This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the enterprises partnering with and/or benefiting from AKEES.
MEDIA
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