File photo: Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo.

The Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has tasked youths to be problem solvers rather than joining the multitude to complain about the situation of the country.

The governor said regardless of the field they find themselves in, youths should continue to work hard and be ready to take advantage of any opportunity they get.

Okpebholo spoke in Benin City, the state capital, on Wednesday on Day 2 of the Edo Youth Impact Forum 2.0 with the theme ‘Ideas, Capital and Impact.’

The governor, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Umar Ikhilor, expressed his administration’s  commitment to the “welfare and development of our youth, and harnessing the immense potentials, talents and creativity of the Edo youths.”

The governor added, “Ask yourself, what you can do to fix a problem in your community, within your environment, instead of just sitting down to complain and grumbling, raining abuses; you can choose to do something. Take action. Part of taking action might just be participating. Participate, be involved. Let us not just be on social media abusing and complaining.

“Whether in the digital space, the music industry, the fashion industry, even the agricultural industry and all that, continue to do what you are doing and do it well. Someday, the opportunities will come, and it will meet your preparation.”

Okpebholo, while expressing satisfaction at what Edo Youth Impact Forum is doing, stated that the forum is “projecting the very agenda of the government when it comes to human capacity building. We are ensuring  that the forum practises our philosophy of practical governance in empowering youth, training them, providing master classes and empowering them after those master classes.”

Earlier, the Team Lead and Special Adviser on Finance, Investments and Revenue Generation, Kizito Okpebholo, stated that the programme was birthed by the governor.

“Last year, he tasked me to do something for our youth. He said, ‘ Go and do something for our youth. Go and plan a programme for our youth; something that is different from every other kind of youth empowerment programme. I was able to build a team around me, and we delivered the first edition where we gave out N10 million to five startup ideas of N2,000,000 each. We gave N10,000,000 to five business ideas.

“This year, we are taking it a step further. We are giving out N40,000,000 in grants to 11 business groups. We have them in different categories,” he added.