A’Ibom Speaker Charges Youths To Tap Available Opportunities

The Speaker Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey, has charged the youths of the state to key into various employment opportunities made available in the state by the current administration.

Rt. Hon. Bassey made the call before doling out N.5 million as cash prize to winners of the first edition of the Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey Youth Entrepreneurship Support Scheme (RHAB-YESS) which held at the Conference Room of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Uyo on Wednesday.

Represented by the member representing Ibesikpo Asutan, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Uko, the Speaker noted that RHAB-YESS is to complement Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Enterprise Development Drive in the state and his contribution towards boosting existing small scale businesses in the state and ending youth unemployment.

According to him, “the best thing a leader can do for his people is to teach them how to fish not just give them fish. This scheme is to mentor and support young entrepreneurs to financial independence and greatness as enshrined in the Dakkada philosophy of the Governor Udom Emmanuel, who wishes every youth to rise up to his/her faith in greatness.”

He however observed that many youths remain unemployed or stagnated in life because they have not toed the path of self-discovery, adding that even in disability there is the ability to attain greatness in life.

“Knowing who you are is crucial for success and your personality matters a lot everywhere, whether in politics or business. Many youths leave potentially lucrative businesses which they received years of training to become commercial motorcyclists because they don’t know themselves. Even your disability isn’t the end of your story. These days we see online, wonderful achievements recorded by people with disability. Even in my local government, we had a physically challenged person who was bold enough to purchase form for councillorship election, contested and won.”

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He, therefore, encouraged participants at the event to see themselves as winners, considering the fact they have learnt a great deal from business talks by two prominent and accomplished entrepreneurs from the state.

“What you’ve learnt today will make you position yourselves to become successful entrepreneurs and accomplished people in life. I congratulate the winners and advise you to put the prize monies to good use.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, one of the Programme Coordinators, Mr. Darlington Udobong, said that RHAB-YESS is entirely an initiative of the Speaker, meant to contribute towards boosting the economy of Akwa Ibom state by making it a thriving business hub for small and medium scale enterprises.

Udobong, who is the Special Assistant to the Speaker on Media and Communications, revealed that the catchment of the programme covers the whole state and will run throughout the tenure of his boss.

“Entry for the RHAB-YESS is open to every young entrepreneur in the state. The strategy is to give opportunity to every business startup in the state. This is in support of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s enterprise development drive to create employment opportunities everywhere in our state.

“This is the first phase in the series. To enter for the contest simply go to the programme web site www.rhab-yess.com and fill out the form that is basically to introduce yourself and your startup business and then upload a short video about your business to the website.

“The best videos will be selected and posted on our Facebook page for voting. Videos with the highest comments will be shortlisted and the best three will become winners. There is actually no loser because if you don’t emerge a winner the first time, you can keep trying with a different video.”

The event also featured 10-minute business talks by two prominent online entrepreneurs from the state, namely Mr. Hanson Johnson of Google Developers Group, Nigeria who talked on ‘Reaching Remote Customers’; and Mr. Uduak Inyang of Kemmy Business School, Ireland who talked on ‘Understanding your Personality.’

Highpoint of the event was presentation of cash prizes to winners of the first phase of RHAB-YESS by the Speaker. The winners were Miss Mkpoikana Israel Eshiet from Onna Local Government Area, who won N100, 000 as third prize; Miss Emem Aniekan Amos from Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, who won N150, 000 as second prize and Mr. Enobong Dickson from Eket Local Government Area who won N250, 000 as first prize.

In his vote of thanks, Mr. Dickson, a shoe maker who is physically challenged, thanked the Speaker for initiating such a wonderful empowerment programme that cuts across the whole state, describing it as innovative and unbiased.

He thanked the organizers of the event for their transparency and thanked his employees for their support and commitment to work, adding that the prize money will help him expand his shoe making business.