THE wealth creation programmes of Delta State Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa got a boost Thursday when Mr Tony Elumelu on behalf of the conglomerates under his watch, donated N500 million in support of the programmes.

Mr Elumelu who led some beneficiaries of Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme on courtesy call on Governor Okowa, expressed joy that within three years of being in office, the administration has impacted a lot on the lives of the people both in terms of provision of infrastructure and encouraging the jobless to be wealth creators through different skill acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes of the administration.

“This is homecoming for me, I want to thank the Governor for everything he is doing in our state, there is a lot of improvement and from the airport to this place (Government House), we have seen a lot of projects,” he said, adding, “we are happy that within these few years, you have programmes where the beneficiaries have become employers of labour, we are going to create specific programme in Delta State and we are committing the sum of N500 million to the programme, the money will be from the Foundation, the UBA group, Heirs Holdings, Transcorp, among others.”

Governor Okowa in his speech, commended Mr Elumelu who has empowered a lot of Africans through his foundation, disclosing that his administration has created a lot of entrepreneurs through different skill acquisition and empowerment programmes.

According to Governor Okowa, the federal government should emphasise the need for Nigerian youths to go beyond acquisition of education certificates to include the acquisition of relevant skills that will enable them to be self-employed.

“We must be looking seriously at technical education to enable our children acquire relevant skills, as a government, we are changing the narrative when it comes to empowerment programmes, empowerment in our state has gone beyond just buying items for the people, but requires equipping the people with relevant skills that will enable them contribute to the growth of the society,” he said.

He emphasised that it was important for the well-to-do individuals in the society to also, assist the poor in the society, asserting, “assisting those who cannot help themselves in the society is the way to go for us to have a better nation.”

High point of the event was the sharing of success stories between beneficiaries of the empowerment programmes of Tony Elumelu Foundation and the beneficiaries of the different wealth and entrepreneur development programmes of Governor Okowa administration.

It is worthy to state that following the success stories of empowerment programmes of Governor Okowa’s administration, the World Banks is partnering with the state in the area of job creation.