By Prince Okafor

The commissioner for Wealth creation, Lagos State, Mr.Durosinmi Etti, has said that the N25 billion Employment Trust Fund by the Federal Government has made the state to achieve equal access to capital for its citizenry.

• Professor Durosinmi-Etti

This is even as he said that the State through the establishment of online Artisans database to effectively facilitate the link between supply and the demand market access has been improved for artisans in.

In his keynote address at the Centre for Public Policy Alternatives (CPPA) Policy Roundtable on Inequality in Nigeria titled: Inequality of Opportunities and Outcome, he said: “ensuring equal access to capital has been achieved by creating an employment trust fund amounting to N25 billion naira by the federal government and run by the private sector to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency.

He acknowledged the existence of an unequal opportunity in access to employment and wealth creation in Nigeria. Adding “In recent years, there have been changes globally and locally that requires Nigerian Society to meet up with the demands of the 21stCentury.

“Institutions are important for driving development as growths alone are not sufficient to create development. People should not see governance as an avenue to distribute “freebies” but as a collective responsibility involving everyone.”

While identifying different perspectives of inequality in the country, Former president of NON-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, (NASU) Ivor Takor, he said that some individual were born into poverty due to no fault of their own.

He also said that “In Nigeria, people who belong to richer echelons of the society have better access to quality education as well as employment. Also, disability, as well as gender, is a barrier to bridging inequality.

He added that “Taxation is not the most contextually efficient way of improving income inequality in Nigeria, rather, the government should focus on the provision of social security services for the population.