By Matthew Don
Local Content Policy in Imo state will soon be a must, the government has assured.
Deputy Governor of Imo State, Gerald Irona said the state will introduce a Local Content Policy, to ensure that citizens of the state are not marginalized on employment and other benefits from organizations operating in the state.
He gave the hint Thursday, while addressing stakeholders during a Special Town Hall meeting on Cassava-Buy-Out Pilot Scheme and General Training Programme Sensitization and Awareness, organized by the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission-ISOPADEC at Oguta Civic Center, Oguta.
“We shall come up with a local content policy of Imo State that ensures that a certain percentage of the workforce is taken from our area and the state. We will no longer accept a situation where companies coming to work in our area will import a greater percentage of the work force from elsewhere, even when we have sufficient local manpower to do the job.
“We shall invest in human capital development, aimed at training our sons and daughters on skills to make them employable. We have concluded plans to commence training of hundreds of our youth on different skills, with a view to equipping them with the required expertise to be employable.”
Continuing, Irona assured the people that the administration of Emeka Ihedioha will ensure that “ISOPADEC is prudent in the management of their resources.”
On security, he informed of plans to host a security summit, aimed at addressing security challenges in the area.
“Soon, we shall have a security summit on how to review the security architecture of Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta. Heads of security agencies in the state will be involved. We shall agree on how best to protect our people. We will not allow a few individuals to tarnish the image of our area.”
Speaking earlier, Managing Director of ISOPADEC, Anthony Okwuosha expressed the readiness of the Commission to make life more meaningful for the people, promising not to disappoint people of the area.
He identified Agriculture, Education, Human Capital Development and general infrastructure as critical areas that the Commission will concentrate on.
Present at the event were: wife of the Deputy Governor, Vivian Irona, former Inspector General of Police and Chairman, Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro, Chairman, Board of ISOPADEC, Magnus Obido, Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter-Party Affairs, Jeff Ojinika, former Chief Executive Officer of ISOPADEC, Ifeanyi Nwobi, Chairman, Interim Management Committee, Oguta Local Government Area, Hilary Eberendu, members of the Board of ISOPADEC, Traditional, community and Religious leaders, other top Government functionaries and thousands of jubilant participants.