Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has called on tertiary institutions within the state to collaborate with each other and the state government to improve the quality of education and reduce unemployment rate.
Speaking at the 13th Convocation Ceremony of Fountain University on Sunday in Osogbo, the Osun State Capital, Governor Adeleke pledged that his administration will serve as a facilitator to ensure the success of the collaboration between Polytechnics, Universities and Colleges of Education within the state.
“Our government is open for partnership and collaboration on various aspects of the state economy. I call on universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education in Osun state to explore innovative win-win relationships between the state and the schools.
“Such a relationship will strengthen efforts to get our graduating students out of the streets. We call for ideas and plans on how to build on existing solutions to address the aspirations of our young ones. Research work must get to the public for application. This proposed partnership is a sincere offer to create a club of societal developers for Osun state.
“My admonition to you flows from the reality of the present day economy. The national economic crisis has worsened unemployment figures even as many states are finding it hard to pay salaries of existing workers. In many states,the public sector is over-bloated. Where vacancies exist, the capacity of the state to pay is suspect.
“The above scenario left the nation with only one option- to support job seekers to become job creators and employers of labour. To that end, the government must provide the enabling environment for small and medium businesses to thrive. The state must serve as the facilitator rather than a regulator”, the Governor noted.
Governor Adeleke further stated that his administration is implementing several sectoral reforms which includes harmonization of payable taxes thereby eliminating double taxation as well as policies that will make Osun residents employers of labour other than job seekers.
“It was in support of the above that our administration recently harmonized all payable taxes. We have combined various taxes into one demand notice. Our target is to eliminate double taxation and reduce the tax rate.
“We are also implementing several sectoral reforms to open up the state economy, expand its base and enhance its capacity to engage the Nigerian youth. We are doing all these to make it easy for Osun residents to become employers of labour rather than job seekers”, he added.
The Governor then rejoiced with the graduating students admonishing them to commence a plan to be self employed as the job market is getting tight and complicated on a daily basis.
