6000 Youths To Undergo ICT Training In Kogi

More than 6,000 youths drawn from the 21 local government areas in Kogi are to be trained on ICT appreciation.

The Coordinator of the programme, Mr Adeyemi Bode-George, told newsmen in Lokoja on Friday that the month-long training was aimed at making the youths to be self-reliant.

He said the modalities for the training were being discussed with the state government and other stakeholders under the Private- Public Partnership (PPP) initiative.

Bode-George said the programme was aimed at empowering youths, through capacity development, as part of efforts to  check criminal activities and unemployment among them.

He said that 30 ICT specialists were being deployed for the training in entrepreneural skills, including Website Development, Graphic Design, computer and GSM repairs and sales, solar technology and V-Sat installation.

Bode-George said the project tagged, “1st Kogi ICT Youth Employment/Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and Exhibition,” would be conducted in Anyigba, Kabba and Okene.

The training is under the auspices of the African ICT Youth Capacity Development Project.

Mr James Williams, the Managing Director of Port-Harcourt- based Maximum Insight Global Services, the consulting firm handling the project, stressed the need to equip youths to fight poverty, unemployment and insecurity.

 “Armed robberies, assassinations, kidnapping, religious violence and urban gangster activities are no longer strange occurences in our society,” he noted, adding that the project was aimed at curbing criminal tendencies.

Williams said that some 60,000 youths in the North Central states would be gainfully employed at the end of the training.

He said the training would be replicated in states in the zone.

The Chairman of Kogi chapter of the National Youth Council, Mr S. B. Godwin, said the training would be beneficial to the youth.

He said that out of the 1.7 million youths in the state, only 500,000 were gainfully employed.