Business
Youth Leader Tasks Govt On Employment Generation
A youth development crusader, Alhaji Umar Isma’il, has urged the various tiers of government on the need of strengthening poverty alleviation programmes and employment generation agencies, to reduce poverty and vices among youths.
Isma’il, the President of Champions Youth Development Association of Nigeria (CYDAN), a non-governmental organisation made the appeal in Lagos Office recently.
He said that the Federal Government should adequately fund agencies and programmes, such as the National Directorate of Employment and the National Poverty Eradication Programme, to achieve the goals of poverty reduction.
He regretted that some youths had taken to crimes due to unemployment and poverty, and expressed optimism that meaningful engagement of the youth would reduce vices.
Isma’il also urged empowerment of the youth, through vocational training and sound education to encourage them to be self-reliant.
He said that many youths were endowed with talents that could enable them to be self-dependent, if developed.
The association’s president, however, advised the youth to discover their talents for personal and national development.
He urged them to resist being used by unpatriotic Nigerians to perpetrate violence and other vices.
Isma’il called on the government to implement the National Identity Card Project as a strategy to improve security.
He claimed that some perpetrators of violence in Nigeria were not citizens, and that identity cards would help to identify and fish them out.
The CYDAN boss said that the implementation of the project would also enable governments at all levels and organisations to make adequate projections and plan for youths and other Nigerians.
Isma’il said the youth development organisation, established on December 17, 2011, was committed to societal transformation, through guidance and empowerment of youths.
He said that the association had registered its presence in 13 states and trained about 2,000 youths in soap making and other vocations.
Isma’il said that the self-sustaining association gave some of the trainees N10,000 each to start their businesses.
Mr Dele Bodunde, a Deputy Editor-in-Chief of NAN, who received Isma’il on behalf of the Head of Lagos Office, Mr Isaac Ighure, commended the association’s efforts.
Bodunde urged the association to emphasise technology in the training of youths, since societal development had become technology-driven.
“Technology is the future of Nigeria; your activities should be ICT-driven,’’ he said.
He said, “technology is the future of Nigeria, your activities should be ICT-driven.