By Clementina Agweda
Human Capital Development encompasses various activities to improve Human lives (these include basic amenities like nutrition, education, health, and job creation initiatives).
The Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC) whose mandate it is to intervene in core areas of Infrastructural and Human Capital Development in target oil and gas-
producing Local Government Areas of the State (Ikpoba Okha, Ovia North East, and Orhionmwon Local Government Areas) has overtime, embarked on several policies and programmes to boost the Human Capacity Development of indigenes in the areas.
The Aguakpa Ghe’ Igbama (youths /women empowerment projects) initiated by the Commission is broadly aimed at skills acquisition, with the intent of upskilling indigenes in the three oil producing areas by providing learning skills like catering, welding and fabrication, plumbing and many others. This is followed by the enterprise development, which has various stages to ensure the skills acquired are successfully utilized and participants can kick-start their small-scale businesses with what they have learned.
The Commission provides successful applicants with the necessary tools and a year’s business accommodation in order to ensure that their businesses kick off successfully.
Business mentorship is the final stage of the Aguakpa Ghe’ Igbama. This aspect takes care of the need to guide the entrepreneurs towards excelling in their various businesses. This stage also ensures monitoring and evaluation, counseling and provision of the necessary encouragement and assistance to help them succeed in their various chosen careers. Aguakpa Ghe’ Igbama has successfully helped to improve the lives of over 150 youths and women in the oil and gas-producing areas of the State.
Similarly, in a bid to Fulfill the Commission’s mandate as an interventionist Agency, The Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC ) recently presented a cheque of 2.9 million naira to 29 Law graduates with each getting a hundred thousand naira to cover expenses of their wigs and gowns in the Nigeria Law School. The Law graduates are indigenes drawn from the three oil-producing areas of the State with their Local Government certification under the umbrella of the National Association of Edo State Law Students in Nigeria Indigenes.
