The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has said the state government is accelerating investment in power reforms and deepening internet connectivity to boost the state's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme.

The governor said in his closing remarks at the end of the 2-day Edo State TVET Conference at the Government House in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

He said promoting technical education remains a top priority for his administration, noting, “As a government, we believe in execution and we are committed to TVET and nothing will stop us from achieving our goal which is to become the number one state for TVET in Nigeria.

“Our demography as a nation is an army of young people who need to be engaged. Our approach to education needs to be rapidly different. We can’t continue to live the way we are by importing all we need for our sustenance. We must now begin to produce more of what we consume and there must be a paradigm shift. We have no option but to produce what we consume."

Obaseki added, “We should realize that we are the only ones that can produce what we need. This is why we have to start training our children in that light and to that extent, TVET is critical for us.

“TVET can’t be left solely for the government. The private sector must collaborate to ensure it thrives. We should create an environment where people are encouraged to focus more on TVET. I have persuaded the President and he has given us an institution to train TVET teachers in the state. The College of Education, Ekiadolor is for that purpose.

“We started our work on refurbishing our educational system six years ago and other states and countries are coming to us to copy our policy to enable them to replicate it in their various locations following the success recorded in that sector."

The governor stated that his government will continue to make investments in the sector to finetune the strategy for driving TVET effectively, adding, “We will focus on electricity as it will help TVET to thrive. We are also focused on promoting internet connectivity. Our strategy is to make Edo a smart state and we have the most internet connection in Nigeria. Benin City alone has 400km of fibre optic cable and last week, we just made a transaction where every Local Government in Edo State will be connected to fibre before August 2023. We are investing in technology. We are also focusing on the people to make our education dreams happen.”