Ondo govt moves to reduce poverty among populace

The Ondo State Government says only an educated, healthy and productive population is essential to reducing poverty among the populace.

The Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, remarked at the inaugural meeting of the state Human Capital Development (HCD) technical and steering committee held in his office in Akure on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu on June 21 inaugurated the committee chaired by the deputy governor.

According to Aiyedatiwa, the human capital development program focuses on three thematic areas of health and nutrition, education, and labor force participation.

The deputy governor thanked the committee for deliberating on strategies to produce the state human capital development work plan.

Aiyedatiwa said that the state government would focus on improving the human capital development of its citizens for inclusive governance.

“A lot of work is in our hands, and we’ve started well; the objective of our committee is to have healthy, dedicated, and productive citizens.

“We know that human capital development is critical to poverty alleviation and citizens participation, and economic growth and development in any nation.

“So, any nation where the human capital is not so developed will be lagging.

“The objective of our committee is set, and I thank God that the critical government functionaries are part of this whole program, so a lot of works are in our hands,” he said.

Speaking with newsmen after the meeting, the Vice Chairman, and Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Pastor Emmanuel Igbasan, said the committee was mapping out strategies to address the three thematic areas of concentration.

Igbasan said the committee would produce a strategic paper to address poor indicators of human capital development in the state.