Olaolu Oladipo 
The Contractor handling the Lagos-Calabar Expressway, Hitech Construction Company, has screened 200 displaced residents of Section 1 of the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Expressway for vocational skill training.
This is just as the company has expressed assurance that it would carry residents living in the right of way where the project is located along in the implementation of the project, saying Hitech is ensuring that all stakeholders take ownership of the project.
Addressing those present at the event held at the vocational training centre of Eti-Osa Local Government, the Community Relations Officer of Hitech, David Omawumi, stated that the scope of the initiative aims at integrating some residents into the project in a sustainable manner.
“We are not just building a road, which by all intent and purposes is a signature infrastructure that would transform and link the various communities where it would pass through, we also at the same time building capacity for the people living within the precinct where it is located, we are also building the capacity of the people,” Omawumi said.
According to Omawumi, who stated that the move was a pilot scheme, the initiative, though a social corporate responsibility, also aims to get the vulnerable groups within the scope of the project to feel the positive impacts that come with the Lagos-Calabar Expressway.
“We are catering for the less privileged who had been impacted negatively economically by the project to get back on their feet,” adding that the 200 people that would be trained would be provided with the needed started pack to kick start their vocational efforts.
While lauding the various communities located within Section 1 of the road for their cooperation with the company so far, Omawumi also praised the enthusiasm that was displayed by those who were nominated to partake in the training section.
