The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Wednesday in Abuja, said it had trained and empowered over 19, 850 indigent youth in the territory.
The Mandate Secretary for the FCT Social Development Secretariat, Hadiza Kabir, made the disclosure, while briefing newsmen on the activities of the secretariat in the last 12 months.
She said the secretariat had, in the last one year, organised a moral rebranding programme in which youth from across the six Area Councils of the FCT benefited.
Kabir also said over 300 youths were trained and empowered in fish farming and aquaculture within the period under review.
Similarly, she said the secretariat trained over 500 youths in ‘Technopreneurship’ to champion small business establishments in technology-based fields like solar and computer combined with leadership training.
According to Kabir, the secretariat also sponsored 600 youth to participate in the 2022 Zuma Film Festival.
In the same vein, 450 youths were trained in agro-based business in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
She said: “Within this period, about 13,100 youth were trained in leather works, satellite installation, welding and metal fabrication and ICT.
“Similarly, another set of 5,500 youth were empowered and given starter packs to jumpstart their learnt vocations.”
Kabir listed other successes recorded in the last one year to include: Evacuation of 12,500 beggars from the streets of Abuja.
According to her, “We also provided feeding and psycho-social counseling to them, just as they were repatriated back to their respective states of origin to decongest the Capital City Centre (CCC).
“The secretariat had successfully evacuated 4,519 mentally retarded persons with drugs related cases out of which 502 had successfully been treated and reunited with their loved ones.
“Medical social welfare can now be accessed in 15 FCTA hospitals as against the previous 10 hospitals that offer such assistance due to the influx of people into the city.