The government of Edo State has said it would collaborate with the Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW) to establish a fabrication village in the state.
Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Governor of the state disclosed this when he received a delegation from the institute on a business visit to Edo State Government House in Benin on Saturday.
Obaseki, lauding the institute for its numerous achievements in the areas of welding and fabrication said the state would leverage on its technologies and vocational initiatives to create a fabrication village in the state.
He added that the village, which would be located close to a power generation station, would not only lead to the creation of small and medium scale businesses, but also facilitate industrialisation of the state.
He said, “We are repositioning our state and NIW is a key plank for this revolution. Edo will like to go into a Memorandum of Understanding with the institute on how to accomplish a fabrication village. We have registered about 40,000 in our database for unemployed youths in the state”.
On how the programme would operate, the governor added that, “We will select those who are interested in welding and train them. We believe that when they have gone through the training and start their own welding business, it will tame the quest to travel abroad in search for greener pasture”.
Meanwhile, the leader of the NIW delegation, Dr Solomon Edeberi, said the visit was to seek collaboration with the state government in the establishment of a fabrication yard and overall industrialization of the state.
Edebiri said that having a fabrication village in the state was a key industrial tool to job creation and promote a clean environment.
He said that the institute, established in 1980, was involved in the training and certification of welders within the West African region and in welding action in the oil and gas industry.
He added that the institute also intends to build its National Centre of Excellence for Welding Engineering in the state.
