As part of efforts to ensuring that youths in Warri South Local Government Area acquire modern relevant skills to become entrepreneurs, the Warri South Local Government Council said it was going to partner the Technology Incubation Centre, Warri, to train some youths.

Dr Michael Tidi, Chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, on Tuesday, said this when the management of the Technology Incubation Centre, Warri paid him a courtesy call.

Tidi said he was delighted with the visit because it had afforded him the opportunity to understand the working of the board.

He said he will reach out to the 12 Federal wards and the 20 State wards in the council to see how the council could bring young boys and girls to go and acquire skills from the centre.

“This is the reason why we are here. We are here to serve . They gave us their mandate to serve them and there is no better way to serve them than giving them this opportunity,” Tidi said.

The Warri South Council Boss said the visit was timely noting that for the first time in the history of the council, the youths have started to realize the importance of acquiring a skill.

“For the first time, you will see that young people have started indicating interest in skills acquisition because a large number of them are making efforts to get the state skill acquisition forms at the local government Secretariat.

“They now that those white collar jobs they were looking forward to in the past are no longer there.

“So, the youths now know that the need for skill acquisition cannot be over emphasized. They know that this is the time they should equip themselves with relevant skills that will make them competitive tomorrow. I am quite glad to see them coming out in their numbers to acquire the forms, Tidi said.

Earlier, Engr Eghosa Uzunuigbe, Centre Manager, Technology Incubation Centre, Warri, said he decided to pay the council chairman the visit to see how they can partner with the council.

Engr. Uzunuigbe, said the Technology Incubation Programme, is an integrated support programme designed to assist budding entrepreneurs in the development of their new technology-based firms, both start-ups and fledglings.

He explained that the programme seeks to effectively link talent, technology, capital and know-how to influence entrepreneurial talent in order to accelerate the development of new companies and speed up the commercialization of Research and Development (R & D) results and innovations.

“Technology Incubation Programme as a global concept, promotes the growth of private sector through the creation of competitive SMEs, hence the wealth creation, employment generation and poverty reduction.

“Technology Incubation Centre, Warri has strived to assist entrepreneurs develop new innovative technology ideas which have helped in creation of jobs and wealth, diversifying of local economy, encouraging youth and women entrepreneurship, comprehensive skill acquisition programme, identifying business opportunities and setting up community’s entrepreneurial climate among others

“These are demonstrated with over ten resident and non-resident entrepreneurs in the Centre. The incubatees have collectively created over 185 (one hundred and eight five) direct and indirect jobs and generated hundreds of millions of Naira as turnover since the past ten years and will do much more if the input mechanism is enhanced,” Engr. Uzunuigbe said.