Business & Economy
Empowering Indigenes Will Bolster Economic Potential Of Lekki Free Trade Zone – Bolatito Ajibode
Eko Hot Blog reports that Bolatito Ajibode, the Deputy Managing Director of Lekki Free Trade Zone, an industrial hub in Lagos State, has underscored the importance of empowering the Indigenous people in the area with the skills needed to thrive.
She made this known during a chat with Eko Hot Blog on the sideline of the unveiling of Lekki Free Trade Zone corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
The beneficiary communities, including Tiye, Imobido, Ilege, and Idasho, had their respective Baales (community leaders) present, alongside representatives of women, youths, and other community members.
Some of the items the Lekki Free Trade Zone donated to communities around the area
The communities were supplied with fishing nets, modern fish kilns, and solar street panels to illuminate the communities.
During the interview, Ajibode bemoaned the dearth of involvement of indigenous people and locals in many ongoing projects in the zone.
To address the shortage of skilled workforce and elevate the social standing of the locals, the Lekki Free Trade Zone boss disclosed that plans were underway to build a technical college in the area.
Deputy Managing Director of Lekki Free Trade Zone, Bolatito Ajibode, speaking at the CSR event
She stated that the locals would form the bulk of the students that would be enrolled in the college, adding that the institution would equip them with the needed skills and technical know-how that would prepare them for prospects and opportunities that the trade zone would engender.
Ajibode said the locals must be an integral part of whatever was going on in the trade zone as their near lack of representation was unacceptable.
Deputy Managing Director of Lekki Free Trade Zone, Bolatito Ajibode at the CSR event
She also called on relevant authorities to establish other formal education centres to address the educational deficiency.
Her words: “We still need to get the people from the community to come here. We have 2700 workers coming to work in this place, and about 97% are not from here.
“It hurts me, and we need to deliberately work on that by ensuring that we have a technical here. The majority of the students will be from here so that we can then plug them into various industries that will require their skills.”
Ajibode said there were not enough people required to take up the vacancies.
“The major problem we still have is how to feed our industry with the right skill and ensure that most of the people employed are from our host community,” he stated.
“Here, they have given us about 3000 hectares of land, four times the size of Victoria Island, and we’ve only developed 15% of the land. Imagine if the place is fully developed and we don’t have the locals working here. It will be a big failure, but before we get to that point, we must start work now.”
On what informed her decision to give back to society, Ajibode stated that her creed of communality inspired her Humanitarian gesture.
She said, “I’m a community girl; I came from a place like this, so I should not forget my background; many people forget theirs. So, I told my team we needed to give back to the community. We got support and gave them what they needed, not just anything. The Baale came to me and told me what the youth, mostly fishermen, need. We got it, and we top it up with other things.”
The Lekki Free Trade Zone deputy managing director implored the locals to handle the equipment with care and diligence as they were expensive.
“We spend nearly 100m on this item, so we urge them to handle them diligently. They need to service the engines. We will get someone to train them on how to operate the machines because they said they’ve not used it before,” Ajibode said.
“This will help them to stop using gas and charcoal that emit smoke that can spoil their eyes. You know some of them are our mothers.
“From time to time, I will go around to check how they are faring and how they are managing the machines.”
Mrs Ajibode also commended Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s THEME+ agenda for giving the Lekki Free Trade Zone an enabling economic environment to thrive.
She expressed hope that the governor’s economic growth initiatives will have greater impact on the operations of the zone.
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