Special Adviser to CRS governor on Investment Promotions, Gerald Ada, while granting www.calitown.com audience, stated that the idea behind the employment concession is to help develop manpower capacity in the state that can further be deployed, not just in GE, but also in the ancillary investments that GE can attract to the state. Government, he added, has put modalities in place to ensure that the more than $3 billion worth of investments attracted to the state by the Imoke administration, bear fruit and in good time.
On indigenous capacity in the power sector, Ada informed that government’s initial plan to send 15 Cross Riverians to the National Power Training Institute in India had to be shelved for financial reasons. However, he continued, “government sent the 15 to the National Power Training Institute here in Nigeria and paid N750, 000 on each candidate as well as a N10, 000 stipend each for their upkeep”. While it has emerged in the near past that some of the Cross Riverians sent to the Power Institute have allegedly complained of not being paid their stipend, Ada responds; “what they refer to is a delay in the payment of the stipend which is attributable to the state of our finances now. It must also be clearly stated that the stipend is not a salary, but just a token to augment what they have, recalling that N750, 000 per head has already been paid for their training. Let them understand that our needs as a state are varied and pressing and those Cross Riverians who are lucky to benefit from government interventions directed at employment generation must show understanding and gratitude”.
Finally, the Special Adviser is of the opinion that Cross Riverians must begin to explore volunteer opportunities which can give them job experience that can be reflected in their curriculum vitae, instead of sit and wallow in unemployment.
