Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday
called on members of the Organized Private Sector (OPS) to key into the
graduate internship scheme of the State Government aimed at equipping fresh
graduates with necessary skills to transform them into job creators rather than
job seekers.
Governor Ambode, who spoke at the Lagos House in Alausa,
Ikeja when he received a delegation from Total Exploration & Production
Nigeria Limited on a courtesy visit, said there was the need for the private
sector to deploy their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards empowering
youths with relevant trainings with the ultimate goal of making them to
contribute to the advancement of the Nigerian society.
While appreciating Total for its giant strides on CSR, the
Governor said such relationship could be scaled up to the optimal benefit of
the society, especially by creating wealth for fresh graduates.
He said: "I want our relationship on CSR to be scaled up so
that we can start to have some kind of synergy between your expertise and the
graduates that we churn out from our tertiary institutions in Lagos here.
"We can look at a way of exploring new ways of creating
wealth among our graduates or even in accessing training that you can afford us
both locally and externally so that in the end, we will be able to do what we
think is good for our new graduates and we will be part of the success story of
Total and also make our graduates to be useful to the society on their own."
Governor Ambode also commended Total for investing heavily
in Nigeria at a time when some others are running away from the country, saying
the development underscores the trust and commitment of the firm to the
improvement of Nigeria’s economy.
Besides, Governor Ambode reiterated his commitment to
creating conducive business climate in the State, saying that such would
ultimately go a long way in creating jobs.
According to the Governor, “We believe strongly that
whatever it is that we can do to make Lagos safer; to make Lagos more
comfortable for investors and improve on the business climate, we would not
hesitate to do it because at the end of the day, it will create more jobs for our
people, we would get more taxes and also provide infrastructure for the people.
"I just want to say that this is a partnership that we will
like to enhance and also try as much as possible to ensure that your corporate
existence is not jeopardized and in whatever form that government can do to
assist in terms of needs of specific issues that relates to your organization,
we will do it," Governor Ambode assured.
Earlier, Managing Director of the firm, Mr. Nicolas Terraz,
who led the delegation, said his team was at the Lagos House to further improve
on the relationship which had always existed between Total Nigeria and the
Lagos State Government.
Terraz, who was accompanied by Deputy Managing Director of
Deep Water District, Mr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa and other top management staff of the
company, commended Governor Ambode for his administration’s strides on
security, the Light Up Lagos initiative and various infrastructural projects in
the State.
He said apart from the fact that work was going on in every
part of the State on a daily basis, there was also a pragmatic atmosphere being
made by Governor Ambode to make Lagos a home for all.
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