The governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde and the Minister of State Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, on Tuesday, flagged off the extended special public works programme to support the masses.
The programme, which was designed to address the ballooning population of the unemployed and rising insecurity in some part of the country, was kicked off by the governor of the state.
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Makinde, who was represented at the flag off by the deputy governor of the state, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan, thanked the federal government for selecting Oyo state as one of the pioneer states to benefit from the programme and also congratulated shortlisted youths.
On his part, Keyamo, who was represented by Ajao Olufemi, said the programme was adopted to fast track the achievements of economic recovery and growth plan.
Keyamo said the federal government will closely monitor the implementation of the programme to ascertain the efficient utilisation of every resources committed to the programme.
He said; “as I address you today, our target is to immediately engage the 774, 000 selected unemployed Nigerians for the programme to execute carefully selected projects across the 774 local government areas in the country.
“Each participating local government identified it’s preferred projects and will be responsible for ensuring that they are executed as planned.
“It is instructive to mention that all the tools and equipment required have been provided.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the state coordinator of the programme, Hon. Ope Salami, said the committee ensured that participants were carefully selected from all the local government, regardless of the political affiliation.