Oyo inaugurates Human Capital Development Council

By Richard Thomas, Ibadan

Oyo State government on Wednesday inaugurated it’s Human Capital Development (HCD) Council for sustainable development in the state.

The inauguration held at the Governor’s Office was convened by the Secretary to the State Government and Chairperson of the Council, Mrs. Olubanwo Adeosun on behalf of the Governor Seyi Makinde.

Speaking at the event, the state Focal Person on Human Capital Development and the Executive Assistant on Administration to the governor, Rev. Idowu Ogedengbe, said members of the Council were drawn from top government functionaries in the relevant MDAs with oversight of the three thematic areas of the Human Capital Development Programme, namely; health and nutrition as well as education and labour.

Ogedengbe said that the National Human Capital Development Programme was launched in March 2018 by the National Economic Council (NEC) with a view to stemming the declining Human Development Indices through enhanced investments that will translate to the evolution of healthy, educated and productive Nigerians for a globally competitive nation by 2030.

The HCD South West Consultant, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju who connected virtually commended Governor Makinde for approving the constitution of the HCD Council in consonance with his passion towards achieving accelerated development for the state.

He encouraged the Council to promptly set up the Technical Working Group that will be saddled with the immediate task of developing a comprehensive plan that will indicate various interventions to be made by the State towards achieving the objective of the HCD strategy.

He gave the list of donours and partners that could provide support by funding the interventions to include the World Bank, UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, Aliko Dangote Foundation, NESG as well as other key private sector outfits.

He also intimated the Council of the two-day South West HCD Conference coming up in Lagos, adding that the conference will provide the platform to carry out a peer to peer review of each state’s work plan and also facilitate the opportunity for the South West states to meet with development partners and donours.

He also stated that achieving synergy between agencies like the federal primary healthcare agencies and the state ministry of health will be pursued towards achieving the HCD strategy.

While inaugurating the members, Mrs. Adeosun stated that the role of the Council is to oversee the activities of the HCD programme in the state by working closely with the technical working group.

She observed that the state had attained significant milestones towards replicating the national HCD strategy, hence the inauguration of the Council.