OSHAKATI - The newly appointed Governor of Oshana Region Elia Irimari yesterday said his office allocated N$550 000 towards youth enterprise development in the region.
“All we need to do is to always put them first and empower them otherwise they will never get the opportunity to grow. It is with this conviction that I[Oshana Regional Council] am donating N$550 000 towards youth enterprise development in Oshana Region,” Irimari said.
The 11 constituencies will each get N$50 000 from the allocated money.
Irimari made the announcement when he addressed the regional leadership yesterday.
Speaking fondly about improving the livelihoods of the regions residents, the governor called on his team to build public private partnerships geared towards that effect.
He further called for broad regional support to transform the regional economy into an industrialised economy. This he said, will liberate the regions inhabitants and equally allow them to prosper.
The governor also reminded the regional leadership of its duty to address socio-economic challenges such as youth unemployment, poverty, wealth and gender disparity, drought and the slow economic growth.
“We need to take a pragmatic approach as to arrest the immediate socio-economic issues facing the region,” the governor said.
Equally, the governor also appealed for unity within the regional leadership structures in order to accelerate and enhance service delivery in the region.
He further encouraged the team to cultivate a culture of public participation and stakeholder’s engagement particularly with the public, local authorities, parastatals, non-government organizations and the media in order to create a unison society.
He also pledged to be a people’s governor and thus appealed to his team to refrain from working in isolation.
“I will not be a governor of spectatorship, but I will be a governor who would collectively initiate and innovative development ideas and yield action based solutions for the betterment of this great region of Oshana,” said Irimari.
The address on Wednesday is part of the governor’s stakeholders’ engagement program.