Business
Skills Acquisition: Youth, Women FG’s Priority -Coordinator
The national co-odinator of Basic-Skill Acquisition and Vocational Training Programme in Nigeria, Mr Lawrence Kyuka says training of youths and women on vocational skills remains top priority of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Kyuka said this in Jos while speaking with newsmen, Monday.
He explained that the training, which was ongoing, had been completed in some states under the supervision of the office of the Special Adviser (SA) to the President on Youths and Students Affairs, Mr Nasir Adhama.
The special adviser said the training was being conducted in selected Local Government Areas in selected states in the six geo-polical regions, in conjunction with some philanthropists and corporate bodies to improve the lives of youths and women.
“We had that of the Plateau in 2017, where we selected nine of the 17 LGAs and trained 800,000 persons, comprising youths and women on different vocational skills.
“Some states that have benefitted include Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Niger, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Nassawa, and Kogi among others. That for South West states would commence by May.
“So far, we have gone round over 20 states with these training programmes all aimed at making the teaming youths and women self-reliant in the face of high rate of unemployment in the country.
“Just early this month (April), we conducted another training programme sponsored by a Diaspora returnee and a Medical Doctor, Dr Alex Nnabue, who sponsored the training of 800 youths and women in Imo State on various vocational skills,” he said.
The national coordinator said that the youth and women were being trained on livestock and other farming business as well as how to make beads, wire works, soap/detergent, New Media & Website Design, video production and photography among others.
“It is the desire of Buhari’s administration to give the youth and women a sense of belonging in terms of economic empowerment and provision of social amenities to improve their standard of living.
“This skills acquisition programme we believe would go a long way in making the trainees employers of labour after acquiring the necessary skills of their choice,” he said.