Instead of going home and showing off their diplomas as recipients of knowledge, Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu has urged the 1,500 retirees who have completed training programs to become ambassadors of enterprise and entrepreneurs.
The governor presented the diplomas to the 1,500 graduates of the Enterprise Development Center’s Basic, Advanced, and Retiree Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI) programs at Cross River State Microfinance Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA).
People who are retiring or will soon be retiring were the target audience for this training program, which aimed to teach them skills for both the working world and starting their own businesses. The venue for the commencement exercises was the Calabar International Convention Centre.
Under the guidance of Prof. Anthony Owan-Eno, the state government secretary, the governor expressed his desire to make Cross River a place where people are more enterprising and think creatively.
Instead of letting people become reliant on the government for work, Otu implied that it would be better to empower individuals to create themselves as business owners.
The state does not anticipate retirees to queue for government work, according to the governor, due to the current push towards entrepreneurship. He hoped they would look at retirement as the start of a new, fruitful chapter in their lives.
You are capable of more and can be better. Retirement in Cross River is now a declaration of good things; with it comes life, hope, and self-belief in what you can become.
He pleaded with the retirement class of 2018 to change the story of company ownership in the state by taking the entrepreneurial plunge.
You can say goodbye to unemployment in Cross River, he joked. Gone are the days when adult offspring of graduates could rely on their parents for financial support. Now is the moment to realise one’s full potential.
“The Role of MSMEs in Innovation, Change and Economic Growth” was the topic of Dr. Tope Fasua’s speech, who is the Special Advisor to the President on Economic Affairs in the Office of the Vice President.
To liven up the celebration, the retirees put on a play and a ballad based on the theme: the Moninkim dance from the state’s central area, the Ekombi dance from the southern district, and the War Dance from the northern district.