Entrepreneurship driving force of 21st century economy, says Fashola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos on Tuesday urged youths not to dissipate energies chasing after scarce white-collar jobs, but to strive towards becoming owners and managers of their businesses, arguing that entrepreneurship remains the driving force of world’s 21st century economy.

He spoke at the first ever Lagos Enterprise Day organised by the Lagos State Technical and Education Board (LASTVEB) which he has given approval to be marked on July 23 of every year going forward.

Against this backdrop, he said there was the need to build the skills of young people in order to tap their creativity and energies for the development of Nigeria’s economy.

Fashola observed that Nigeria was still far from achieving her developmental aspirations because there remains a huge gap between needs and the skills required to meet them.

According to the governor, the answer to this deficit is for the country to invest in vocational and technical education and build the right attitudes towards entrepreneurship. He added that the state government had made sustained efforts towards promoting technical education through the reinvigoration of technical colleges and partnerships with organisations on students’ trainings.

Fashola assured the state government would continue to promote technical and vocational education to produce the required skills to drive the state’s mega city dream.

Olayinka Oladunjoye, the state commissioner for education, said the government was giving technical education the attention it deserved.

She said new equipment had been provided in the state’s five technical colleges to boost the quality of training.

The commissioner said the government had secured partnerships with Samsung and other leading engineering firms on students’ training, adding that some of them had established academies in colleges.

Also speaking, Helen Jemirigbe, a director with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), who represented Segun Oshinowo, the association’s director general, said organisations were in great need of skilled manpower to drive their visions.

She said NECA had signed an agreement with the state government on the training of technical colleges’ students to help address this skill deficit.