Stakeholders have declared that most of the social challenges being experienced in the South East and particularly Imo State are mainly driven by economic deprivations and poverty.
To mitigate the negative impact of economic deprivation and poverty, the Imo State Government is wooing impact investors to help tackle such challenges by investing in the state.
Following its resolve, the state government has also hinted that it was formulating an industrial policy focused on employment and the creation of jobs for young people and arrest insecurity in the state.
Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo State government, Prof. Kenneth Amaechi, explained that the government was considering exploring the digital economy, as a possible next step to deepen the economic development of Imo State.
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Amaechi, a professor of sustainable finance at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and visiting professor of leadership and financial markets in Africa at the London School of Economics, United Kingdom, pointed out that globally, technology firms have overtaken oil and gas businesses in wealth creation.
Affirming that Imo State has a large population of talented young people to support a digital economy, he said “a digital economy is global in nature and will open the state to the world and help to transcend the limitations of space or geography.
“Someone can be in Owerri and earn money from overseas, you don’t need to travel. There are people here who stay in their homes and are working for companies abroad. And so, it will help a lot in addressing unemployment and that is what we are trying to do with the industrial policy,” Amaechi stressed.
He further explained that Imo State Industrial Policy is one that is employment-led, pointing out that many industrial policies tend to be investor-led.
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