Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Tuesday said entrepreneurship and job creation were keys to tackling poverty in the country.

Ambode, who was represented by the Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Rotimi Ogunleye, spoke in Ikeja during the graduation of 12,935 students at the various skills acquisition centres run by the state government.

The governor said, “We are convinced that large scale entrepreneurship and massive job creation were the twin weapons through which the government could deal with poverty and hunger.

“Equally, it is only those that have skills that will get jobs and only those that are educated can acquire skills.

“Consequently, we are not only producing skilled graduates, we are also producing self-dependent and self-employed individuals, who will be employers of labour in not too distant future.

“We are giving each of today’s 12,935 graduating students the opportunity that we did not have. We were trained to study and look for jobs; but we trained you to create jobs for yourselves and others.”

The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Oluranti Adebule, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in her office, Yetunde Odejayi, said only those who had skills would survive in the present economic situations of the country.

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Lola Akande, recalled that 5,951 students graduated from the programme last year, adding that the 12,935 students trained in 2017 represented over 100 per cent increase from the last year’s figure.

Akande stated that the graduates were trained in vocations such as hairdressing and cosmetology, catering and hotel management, computer, textile designing, hat making barbing and shoemaking, among others.