Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi, on Friday, wooed automobile manufacturers, investors and indigenous entrepreneurs to the state, pledging an enabling environment for investments to thrive.

Mr Nwifuru made the call at the formal inauguration of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) Automotive Training Centre in Abakaliki, noting that the investments would usher in technological transfer.

The governor said the council, which was the first NADDC automotive training centre in the South-East geopolitical zone, would also foster local capacity development and sustainable job creation.

“The facility marks a significant step in Ebonyi’s industrialisation drive, designed to train automobile mechanics and develop a new generation of technicians, engineers, innovators among others.

“We expect that their expertise would drive the state’s emerging industrial economy as the centre is not just an extension of the regular mechanic site.

“This is a future investment of automotive technology, showing practical convergence of the federal government’s renewed hope agenda and my administration’s People’s Charter of Needs mantra,” he said.

He noted that the intervention was particularly on human-capital development, technical education, technology and productive enterprise.

“I urge Ebonyi youths to take advantage of the facility and discard the perception that technical education is inferior to conventional academics.

“Technical knowledge is not inferior because properly trained automobile technicians can become entrepreneurs.

“Automotive engineers and fabricators can establish businesses, develop components and create employment,” he said.

Mr Nwifuru said his administration would continue to provide the enabling environment for investments to transfer technology, develop local skills and contribute to the state’s economic transformation.

The minister of state for industry, trade and investment, John Enoh, said the inauguration reflected President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to skills development, human-capital development and industrialisation.

“The Ebonyi centre is the first NADDC facility inaugurated in the south-east as we identify skills development as one of the major requirements for industrial growth.

“The rapid emergence of technologies such as electric vehicles and advanced energy-management systems, require corresponding investment in technical training.

“Ebonyi is a state with strong entrepreneurial potential.which should make its youths seek skills acquisition to become employers of labour,” he said.

The NADDC director-general, Oluwemimo Osanipin, said the centre was established to provide practical, industrial-relevant training for youths among other automotive practitioners in Ebonyi and the South-East zone.

“The facility is equipped with modern training tools and designed to support skills acquisition, technical innovation, technology transfer, workforce development among others,” he said.

The NADDC governing board chairman, Emma Eneukwu, commended the federal and Ebonyi governments for their collaboration, noting that the centre reflected serious commitment to technological development. 

(NAN)