The Kogi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KOCCIMA), has called on the state government to establish a zonal youth development centre in each of the three senatorial districts of the state.
The President of the group, Dr John Alabi, made the call in Lokoja, yesterday, during “2014 First Quarter Review of Business and Economic Outlook.”
According to him, government needed to improve on its Youth Advancement (YAD-4) scheme to make it meaningful in rural communities, saying that the three centres would complement government’s poverty reduction and youth empowerment programme.
He also called for establishment of industrial centres/clusters, floating of Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Industrial Loan Scheme to aid industrialisation and SMEs development.
Alabi urged the government to institute periodic accountability forum to present its scorecard to the people and lead by example by enforcing due process and contract procurement principles and reduction of cost of governance.
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to Governor Idris Wada on Investment Promotion, Alhaji Yusuf Ali, said the greatest problem of the country apart from the contemporary insecurity was public expenditure management.
Ibrahim said over 70 per cent of corruption in the country was perpetrated through over-invoicing, lamenting that the Public Procurement Manual of the World Bank adopted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration was jettisoned.
