50 Katsina youths empowered

From Augustine Okezie, Katsina

The Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) has empowered about 50 Katsina youths with laptops. Fifteen laptops were shared among groups of threes.

Director-General of SMEDAN Dikko Radda, at the kick off of distribution, said the initiative was designed to support the promise of President Muhammadu Buhari to lift one hundred million Nigerians above the poverty line in the next 10 years

Radda said 300 youths are involved across the country, with 50 participating in each of the six geo-political zones – Bauchi for the North East, Kogi for North Central, Katsina for North West, Ebonyi for Southeast, Osun for Southwest and  Akwa Ibom for Southsouth. He added that beneficiaries were trained on the theory and practical aspects of the empowerment exercise on April 17, 2019.

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He said: “The objective of the empowerment exercise is to encourage the design and development of internet-based plat forms for the idle youths to engage in, create online jobs for the youths and channel their attention from internet fraud to more engaging and profitable ventures. I advise the beneficiaries to utilise this opportunity to be useful to themselves and the country at large.”

Radda also advised the youths to form cooperative groups for easy recognition by governments.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Mannir Talba, who represented Governor Aminu Masari, praised SMEDAN for the initiative, saying the government has been partnering SMEDAN on several empowerment programs that will benefit youths in the state.