Ambode seeks support for youth empowerment

The Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi
Ambode, has appealed to corporate
organisations in the country to deploy their
corporate social responsibility towards
empowering youths in the state.

He urged the private sector to invest in the
graduate internship scheme of the state
government, adding that the initiative was to
equip fresh graduates with skills that would
make them job creators rather than job
seekers.

The governor spoke at the Lagos House, Alausa,
Ikeja, while receiving a delegation from Total
Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, a
statement said on Wednesday.

While appreciating the company for its strides
on CSR, he said there was a need to empower
youths with trainings that would make them
contribute to the advancement of the Nigerian
society.

He said, “I want our relationship on CSR to be
scaled up so that we can start to have some kind
of synergy between your expertise and the
graduates that we churn out from our tertiary
institutions in Lagos.

“We can look at a way of exploring new avenues
of creating wealth among our graduates or even
in accessing trainings that you can avail us both
locally and externally so that in the end, we will
be able to do what we think is good for our new
graduates and we will be part of the success
story of Total and also make our graduates
useful to the society on their own.”

Ambode commended Total for investing in
Nigeria at a time when other organisations
were running away from the country, saying the
action underscored the trust and commitment
of the firm to the improvement of Nigeria’s
economy.

Earlier, the Managing Director of the firm, Mr.
Nicolas Terraz, who led the delegation, said his
team was at the Lagos House to further improve
on the relationship which had always existed
between Total Nigeria and the Lagos State
Government.