24th September, 2012
The Lagos State Government has created 37,000 jobs through the 161 contracts awarded this year, says Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Kadri Hamzat.
Hamzat spoke while delivering a lecture titled: “Prospects and Challenges of an Agricultural Engineer,” at the 40th Anniversary of the Department of Engineering, University of Ibadan, Oyo, southwest Nigeria, at the weekend.
The commissioner called for a review of Nigeria’s education curriculum to reflect human resource development needs necessary for national growth and development.
He said education remained a critical tool for national development, while disclosing Lagos State Government’s plans to initiate and promote the utilisation of available research findings to improve productivity and impact on the economy.
According to him, “a committee of eminent academics will soon be inaugurated with responsibility to develop and manage such plausible research mechanism as envisioned by the state government.”
He explained that the state government’s actions in the area of infrastructure development had brought about the need for the state-owned Lagos State University, LASU, to begin programmes that would support the management of extensive infrastructure.
The commissioner insisted that technical education was not a lesser value job compared to other non-technical training, and urged students to engage in very profitable opportunities available in the agriculture sector.
Hamzat added that the challenge of job creation could be traced to the non-domestication of the dominant sectors of the nation’s economy, such as oil and gas and mining, among others
He stated that with exportation of raw materials and nion-investment in processing of the raw materials produced, feeder products took place outside the shores of Nigeria, thus creating jobs off Nigeria’s shores.
Hamzat pointed out that the development of appropriate technology relevant to the needs of Nigeria remained the singular challenge for all Nigeria’s researches across tertiary institutions.