The Osun State Government has begun a push to empower youths and women by targeting 1,000 beneficiaries for skills training in the conversion of waste to wealth, as part of efforts to address climate change and create income opportunities.
The disclosure was made by the Director General and Special Envoy to the Osun State Governor on Climate Change and Renewable Energy, Prof. Chinwe Obuaku-Igwe, during a training programme organised for selected women and youths drawn from local government areas. The programme was held on Friday in Osogbo.
Obuaku-Igwe said the training was conceived to empower youths and women by equipping them with practical knowledge to earn money through the conversion of waste to useful materials and items.
According to her, “Youth and woman are the most vulnerable and populations in every given polity. They always bring different set of capacity or capabilities to a community. Like I said over there, the youth bring ideas, women bring innovation and communality.”
She explained that youths and women are mostly affected by climate change, which informed the state’s decision to prioritise them. “They are the ones mostly impacted by effect of climate change. In Osun State, we have decided to prioritise them, not just to, with regards to adaptation and mitigation, but with regards to revenue generation amd green entrepreneurship, which we are introducing into the state,” she said.
Obuaku-Igwe disclosed that the state is targeting 1,000 youths and women, adding that the current programme represents the second batch of the inaugural training held in August. She said the first training focused on waste to wealth, while the second batch is centred on waste to energy.
“We are targeting 1,000 youths and women. Today’s training is the second batch of the inaugural one we had in August this year. The first one was on waste to wealth and this second one is on waste to energy and the goal is to target green entrepreneurship,” she stated.
She said participants are being taught how to move away from a linear economy to secularity and to understand that waste is a resources and an opportunity to generate income.
“If you look at the nature of waste, the goal is also to teach them to understand that the benefits of waste is multi-faceted and complex. Today’s training focuses on the complexity of generating energy from waste as different from the first set of training whose was basically to introduce the basic of waste to wealth,” she said.
She urged residents to cooperate with the government on climate action initiatives, noting that the projects can generate carbon revenue and improve compliance with climate change standards.
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, had in September announced the appointment of Obuaku-Igwe as Director-General and Special Envoy on Climate Change and Renewable Energy. The announcement was contained in a statement signed by the Governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed.
Rasheed said the appointment was aimed at strengthening the state’s climate action and renewable energy agenda. “Professor Obuaku-Igwe will operate directly under the Governor, with a mandate to drive high-level partnerships with multilateral agencies, investors, and global climate networks,” he said.
He added that her role includes coordinating the implementation of Osun’s Climate Action Plan. Before the appointment, she had served as a consultant to the state government on Climate Change and Renewable Energy.
