Niger govt will continue to prioritize human capital development – Ahmed Ketso
By Abubakar Hassan
Niger state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso has assured that the state government will continue to prioritize human capital development in the state.
The Deputy Governor who is the Chairman of the state Human Capital Development (HCD) council stated gave the assurance while addressing participants at the Regional Conference of HCD, North Central Region, held at Nassarawa state government house Auditorium, Lafiya.
He observed that human capital development was the bedrock of any positive development in states and the country at large, urging the participants at the conference to pay much attention on the issues discussed.
Ahmed Ketso disclosed that in realization of the importance of human capital Niger state government had put alot of mechanisms in place for human capital development which he said had yielded positive result in virtually all the critical sectors of the state.
He said as a result of HCD the enrollment figure in schools had increased and the number of out of school children had reduced drastically in the state.
Earlier, the Deputy Governor of Nassarawa state and Chairman of the state HCD council, Dr. Emmanuel A. Akabe said the event aimed at fostering unity and provide investment opportunities for the participating states, adding that the conference will serve as a peer review mechanism for the states.
He disclosed that since the establishment of agency in his state, it has attracted alot of investment to the state, through Dangote groups, Azman and the state had also joined the league of oil producing states.
Dr. Emmanuel Akabe commended the office of Human Capital Development (HCD) in Nigeria for staging the conference and urged it to sustain it.
Similarly, the Deputy Governor of Benue State who is equally the Chairman of Benue state HCD council, Engr. Benson Abouna said from all that was discussed in the conference, it was believed that human capital development begins from when a child was born to productive era, adding that HCD means the development of human being in such a way that it can bring positive development in the country.
He observed that what we need in Nigeria today was nothing more than human capital development, adding that education was meant to make an individual to think and that education without thinking is useless.
The HCD programme started in 2018 by the National Economic Council and its vision is; Healthy, educated and productive Nigerians by the year 2030, while some of the strategic themes of the conference were Health and Nutrition, Education and Labour Force.
