Enugu State Government has risen to tackle the problem of human capital development in the state, assuring that it will work closely with the national Core Working Group to ensure that the Human Capital Development (HCD) vision, key priorities and targets were achieved in the state as soon as possible.
The state government disclosed that it had established Human Capital Development (HCD) Council with the deputy governor, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, as the chairman and a State HCD focal person, who doubles as the secretary to the HCD Council.
The state said it also developed its HCD action plan, using the parameters defined by the national Core Working Group.
This was made known by Mrs Ezeilo in a remark at the Core Working Group on Human Capital Development Programme visit to the state on Tuesday, at the Government House, Enugu.
Ezeilo, who received the group in her office before their expanded meeting with stakeholders, said that the road maps of this Action Plan were being regularly updated as they progress.
She said: “Further to the implementation of this Action Plan, members of the State’s Technical Working Group (TWG), drawn from the thematic ministries, (Education, Health and labour) have been selected and trained”
She added that the state council “is active and meets regularly with occassional consultations with experts and other partners as the need arises.
“Our plan is to continue with this process of engagement, with all the key stakeholders and partners, with a view to putting the human capital development agenda in the front burners of the state’s comprehensive growth trajectory.
“The state council has selected and also highlighted a number of HCD intervention areas, considered relevant to our state. Some of these intervention areas have already been incorporated in the budget.
“More intervention areas are being developed by the council in collaboration with its partners. The new areas will also hopefully be incorporated in the budget as soon as possible”.
Ezeilo, who said that a sustainable rise in the human capital development ranking is the desire of the people of the state, assured that the “state council will work hard to mobilise everyone to achieve this noble goal”.
She disclosed that the state council had set up HCD Monitoring and Evaluation Team as part of activity tracking mechanism.
“It is hoped that this team will play a key role in ensuring that the implementation processes proceed as planned and desired”, she said.
Earlier, the Coordinator of Core Working Group (CWG), Ms Linda Akinbi, said that the CWG was established by the office of the vice president with the aim of moving forward, human capital development in the country.
She said that all the 36 states in the country were part of it and each state has its own perculiarity.
Akinbi added that “the HCD programme focuses on three thematic areas and six critical human capital development outcome areas, which include social inclusion, social protection, health and nutrition, education gender empowerment among others.
Akinbi urged states to work together to achieve the HCD objectives.
In his opening remarks, the focal person in Enugu State, Hon. Chibuzor Okafor, said that human capital development is a key component of the eight-point agenda of the Enugu State Government led by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi .
He said that the state had met with the House of Assembly, started their stakeholders meeting, developed its Action -plan, discussed with thematic ministries and done some training for the technical working groups, among others.
An expanded meeting of the Core Working Group, the State HCD council and stakeholders, including traditional rulers, Civil Society Organisations, private sectors, local government chairmen, House of Assembly members, the media, ministries of health, education and labour was held later in the day.
The stakeholders agreed to support the programme and take the national human capacity development to the grassroots to have healthy and educated Nigerians.
