The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has expressed the determination of his administration to curb high rate of unemployed youths in the state, assuring the soon -to – be – inaugurated Dakkada Skills Acquisition Centre (DASAC), at Ikot Ada Idem community in Ibiono Ibom local government area, would mitigate the problem.
He commended the immediate past administration of Mr Udom Emmanuel for the vision and deliberate commitment to setting up the training centre.
Pastor Eno, dropped the hint when he visited the centre on a facility tour ahead of the its inauguration on May 20, 2024.
He urged the supervising commissioner, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, of the ministry of education, to ensure that students are admitted for the centre to commence training on the said date.
The governor who was conducted round the facilities at the centre by the consultant in – charge of the project, Mr Churchill Udoh, expressed satisfaction with the standard of infrastructure at the vocational institution.
He said, “We are ready to go with this one.The commissioner for education and the consultant have told me that by March 15th, they will be ready. Everything is complete here.
“This is a world-class skill acquisition centre, and like I said during my campaign, everything the previous administration has done, we will take to a logical conclusion. This is one of the legacies of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration. The courage, the guts he had to do this, we must ensure not to let it die; no, it cannot die because posterity will not forgive us.
“So, I have come here to see that everything is ready. They have briefed Exco. I just needed to come here and see everything by myself. I just needed to see the governing board, the staffing and their financial standing because this is supposed to be a self-sustaining institution.
“I have agreed government will kick start it but government will not continue to fund it. With all of the things government has done here already, I belief Akwa Ibom is ready to train our skilled manpower for the rest of the world. I am pleased about what I am seeing here.”
The governor who also inspected the low cost housing units for civil servants in the state, said it was part of his campaign promises to connect the dots by completing and putting to use, all projects executed by the previous administration.
He also promised that standard amenities, in addition to the ongoing road projects around the housing estate communities, will be executed to further open up the area and expand the capital city.
“We have visited the two estates, both are for civil servants. The fact is that because of lack of road, we couldn’t access all of those houses which have been there for the last eight years. The contractor has put in money and it was left there. So I needed to see the extent of work and we can now turn that area to a small community.
“I have asked that they connect water, work on the primary and secondary schools and give them a health facility and a police station so that we can have a full community there. Uyo is really becoming crowded and of course the estate is within the Uyo Capital City Development,” he stressed.
