ZEE CAST

SEEFOR Winds Up Activities, As Apokwu Hands over To ODA Director, Ogbewe

The Delta State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) Project, has come to an end and was the culmination of about nine years of enhancing opportunities for employment and access to socio economic services, while improving the public expenditure management in Delta State.

Delta State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr. Barry Gbe attended the occasion held to mark the exit of the state SEEFOR project coordinator, Sir Frank Apokwu, on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, in Asaba, Delta State capital.

The Delta State SEEFOR Project came to an end on January 31, 2021. The Delta State Ministry of Economic Planning was the supervisory ministry of the project, a responsibility it discharged through the ministry’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) unit.

Before his exit, Apokwu handed over to the Director, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA)/Head, State CARES Coordinating Unit (SCUU), Lady Patience Ogbewe. She said that the SEEFOR staff would be retained, due to the level of their capacity, which was achieved through rigorous capacity building by the SEEFOR project. Also present to witness the occasion were officials of the Delta State Ministry of Economic Planning and SEEFOR staff.
The handover included the presentation of handover notes by Apokwu to the Director, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA)/Head, State CARES Coordinating Unit (SCUU), Lady Patience Ogbewe.

The Delta State SEEFOR Project, which came on stream in the state in 2013, was praised for tremendous and consistent impact on several lives in Delta State, in multifaceted areas, in tandem with its core objective of enhancing opportunities for employment and access to socio economic services.
In partnership with the World Bank and European Union, the Delta State Government under the present administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, through the SEEFOR intervention, engaged over 8,455 youths to work in the small public works component of SEEFOR, for a period of 12 months’ interval and thereafter, they were sent to the state’s technical colleges and vocational centres to acquire one form of skill/vocation or the other. The SEEFOR trainees were later presented with starter packs to commence their businesses, with a view to becoming entrepreneurs and thus, were able to contribute their quota to the economic base of the state.
In realisation of the multiplier effects of technical and vocational education, particularly as a veritable tool for driving the economy of the state, the Delta SEEFOR project, as mandated by the funding partners-World Bank and European Union, gave all TVET institutions in the state a face lift to improve the learning environment, as well as provided modern learning equipment, among others. SEEFOR also assisted the six state-owned technical colleges and three vocational centres to compete favourably with their counterparts in other parts of the world. The SEEFOR intervention, in addition to the resources invested in the sector by Delta State Governor, Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, re-positioned technical education in the state.