Niger Delta
C’River Focused On Youth Empowerment – Commissioner
The Government of Cross River State says it has initiated three flagship programmes aimed at engaging youths in the state, and to discourage crime.
The state Commissioner for Youth Development and Skills Acquisition, Mr. Ijom Ukam, made this known in an interview with The Tide’s source in Calabar.
He listed the programmes as: skill-in-the-hand initiative, one youth two skills programme, the back-to-land initiative.
He said the three programmes were aimed at creating opportunities for the youths to excel in their chosen endeavours.
According to Ukam, the programmes will also provide sustainable means of livelihood for the growing population of youths in the state, adding that about 1500 youths have benefitted from these programmes.
“One of the programmes is called skills-in-the-hands initiative. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that every youth possesses at least two skills, regardless of their educational background.
“This approach serves as a replacement for “Food on the Table”, that enrolled hundreds of youths onto the state’s payroll, providing them with salaries for the duration of the administration.
“We also have the ‘One Youth, Two Skills’ programme, which is in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development of Abuja, and then we also have the ‘Back-to-Land initiative’.
“These three flagship initiatives are geared towards engaging our young people productively.
“Now, you will understand with me that we cannot guarantee employment for all the young people who are seeking employment.
“But we try to make sure that we can supplement the government’s effort in terms of employment by creating opportunities for young people to learn skills”, he said.
The commissioner said the youths are not just trained in various aspects of skills, but are also exposed to sources of funding and, in some cases, provided with startup capital.
He noted that in achieving this, the state went into partnership with some organisations such as Lafarge, NDDC, Skyrun International.
Ukam noted that the training on various skills was not limited to Nigeria, adding that some trainees have also been sent abroad.
He said government aims to train thousands of youths in various skills as part of efforts to empower young people, create wealth, and reduce youth restiveness in the state.