C'River ranked 3rd worst destination to do business in Nigeria - LA Shakara

Senior Special Adviser on Entrepreneurship and Job Placement to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Mr. Joseph Edet (La Shakara) 

By Akachukwu Okonkwo

Senior Special Adviser on Entrepreneurship and Job Placement to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Mr. Joseph Edet (La Shakara) has lamented that the state is rated as the 3rd least states on ease of doing business in Nigeria.

Edet who stated this on Friday while interacting with Journalists in Calabar however added that with the industrialization drive of Gov. Ayade, the state was set to move to the top five best states on ease of doing business in the country.

He said that the current administration was working to create more entrepreneurs who will in turn create more jobs for the teeming employed youths.

Edet said that "the state has been rated as the third lowest when it comes to ease of doing business; this is a very bad record, but with the vision of industrialization the Governor has, we can move to the top five best states in business".

He stated that the just concluded Global Entrepreneurship Week with the theme "Women and Youth Inclusion and Ecosystem Connect", was aimed at telling people of the need to embrace entrepreneurship and get themselves prepared and not depend only on oil as source of economy.

He revealed that "In the just open Cross River State Micro finance Bank we have 500 million Naria in the form of grants and sub loans and about 80% will go in as grants to Cross Riverians who are willing to start or have business.

"The ongoing project by the Governor called 'The Cross River State Business and Enterprise Project' will help train young entrepreneurs to aide them to stop thinking locally but to think Globally, to think outside the box.

"We have about One hundred thousand acclaimed entrepreneurs in the state which is not good enough, we should be looking at about five hundred thousand entrepreneurs".

Speaking about jobs placement, Edet added that "the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the office of the Governor have come up with Job Center where if you submit your C.V, once a job comes up, you will be informed immediately in other to connect people who are looking for jobs to the available jobs.

"Also we have the Ayade Job fair coming up next year where we will get people coming from different companies and places in oder to remove people from the streets and create up to 500 jobs.

"We need to be patient with the Government. Every project has Seed time and Harvest time".