The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has said that his government has registered a total of 150,000 unemployed persons in the state under its Edo Jobs Initiative.
Addressing workers Monday at the May Day celebration, he said the registration of unemployed persons was the first step towards achieving his promise to create 200,000 jobs within four years.
He said his Agripreneur project which focused on major crops will employ over 40,000 people.
Obaseki said the issues of non-payment of wages in the local government made him to commence direct oversight functions of local government administration in the state.
He stated that the pilot scheme he introduced for the collection of revenue for local government has yielded good results with a daily income of over N500,000 from nine locations in Oredo local government against N42, 000 that was previously remitted.
Obaseki vowed to ensure all revenues due to local government are collected to make sure workers and pensioners of the local councils are paid promptly.
On the issue of Bendel Brewery, Governor Obaseki vowed not to use taxpayers money to offset huge debts of the company.
He said previous administration plunged the company into debt and he was not ready to pay the debt.
His words, “People took so much money from the company and left huge debt. We will not pay the debt. We will rather redeploy the workers there and pay them their arrears.”