9,515 direct employment has been provided for youths in Delta State by the State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) in its Labour Small Public Works, since the project started seven years ago.
The figure exceeded the target of 8,736 set by the World Bank, Project Coordinator of SEEFOR in the state, Frank Apaokwu has said.
SEEFOR is a World Bank/European Union intervention partnership programme with some states in the Niger Delta region which is winding up in September after seven years of working in communities within the region.
Speaking after a tour to some of its projects in the central senatorial district of the state, the coordinator said SEEFOR has carried out 106 road construction and rehabilitation and drainage projects across the three senatorial districts, adding that 160 waste management contracts were implemented through the Private Sector Participants (PSPs) model.
He said a total of 14,954 beneficiaries were trained in technical, vocational and agricultural skills as against the 7,900 target set by the World Bank.
According to him, the successes were achieved under the project’s component of Youth Employment through Small Public Works and Access to Socio-Economic Services.
He said SEEFOR also recorded strides in the Public Financial Management Reforms component, with reforms in the fiscal policy of the state and local government councils to meet global best financial practices.
The state Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr Barry Gbe assured workers in the SEEFOR project that they should not entertain fears of being thrown out of job since the project was winding up.
He commended SEEFOR for its intervention in various sectors of the state, even as he thanked the donor agencies for their gesture.