Managing Director, Edo State Skills Development Agency (EdoJobs), Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, in a chat with journalists, noted that the agency, which also tracks employment trends in the state, has witnessed an upswing in vacancies in the retail and hospitality sector as well as the coming on stream of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) offering boutique services.
According to her, “I am glad to report that we are recording an upswing in new retail outlets opening shop in the state. We have a number of local and global retail outlets opening up shop in Edo State.
“We got the facts of these new businesses with the increasing use of our portal for job vacancies and adverts by vendors seeking to hire new staff. A lot of these inquiries came from retail outlets, real estate companies, hospitality businesses and boutique SMEs operating in the state.”
She added that there has been an uptake of business activities on the Sapele Road axis of Benin City, owing to the access to power supply now guaranteed with the coming on stream of the 55MW CCETC-Ossiomo Independent Power Project, which is licensed to distribute embedded power to private businesses with capacity to utilize and pay for their services.
In the last couple of months, new retail outlets have made incursion into the state, with Domino Pizza and Coldstone Creamery setting up outlets in the Sapele Road and Uselu axis of the city; the expansion of Market Square Supermarket to Aduwawa area and new outlets of Jara Discount stores across Benin metropolis.
