The World Bank and the European Union (EU) would be spending over $1million in Bayelsa State in the next two years under the State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) Project to provide 6,000 jobs for youth empowerment.
Parminder Brar, the World Bank Task Team Leader (TTL) for the SEEFOR projects in Nigeria, disclosed this in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the SEEFOR Project Implementation Support Mission (ISM) by the World Bank in Yenagoa on Monday.
He said that during the first 12 months of the two years, 40 new projects would be started and crafts, technical and vocational training centres in the state would receive support under the SEEFOR project.
Bras also said the overall allocation for the SEEFOR project is $480 million of which 65 percent is from the World Bank and 35percent from the EU, adding that the allocation for Bayelsa is $55 million.
Delivering a keynote speech at the event, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha Jonah (rtd), the Bayelsa state Deputy Governor, decried Nigeria’s slow approach to tackling its developmental challenges, especially in improving life expectancy, literacy rate, access to water and roads, among others, when compared to its neighbours.
He said that some state governments focus on developing the urban areas while the rural areas receive little or no attention, noting Bayelsa had keyed into the SEEFOR project to change the narrative in the rural areas.
Jonah commended the SEEFOR project for not only providing over 10,000 jobs for the teeming youths in the state, but also for constructing roads for farmers to evacuate their farm produce, emphasizing that the successful execution of SEEFOR projects would attract more projects to the state.
Jonah also noted that the greatest challenge facing Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country was lack of access to funds that would attract minimal interest, enough time to execute projects and pay back loans.
The deputy governor, who called on the participating states of Edo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa to have equal SEEFOR assessment, participation and benefit, enjoined participants from the four states to take the peer-review sessions seriously, especially in the area of public financial management.
Also speaking, Joshua Ongore, the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, said that the objectives of the SEEFOR project were in line with the developmental agenda of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration concerning youth empowerment through training, entrepreneurship and employment.
He described the scheme as an innovation that had provided opportunity for peer-learning across the states, stressing that the SEEFOR project was active and responding to the challenges of adapting to new ways of doing things better.
