The National Coordinator, Basic Skills Acquisition and Vocational Training Programme, Mr. Lawrence Kyuka, has said training of youths and women on vocational skills remains a top priority of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Kyuka stated this in Jos, the Plateau State capital. He said the training had been completed in some states under the supervision of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Youths and Students Affairs, Mr. Nasir Adhama.
The aide said the training was being conducted in selected local government areas in some states in the six geo-political zones, in conjunction with some philanthropists and corporate bodies to improve the lives of youths and women.
“We had that of the Plateau in 2017, where we selected nine of the 17 LGAs and trained 800, 000 persons, comprising youths and women on different vocational skills. Some states that have benefitted include Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Niger, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Nassawa, and Kogi, among others,” he said.
Adhama said the training in the Southwest would start this month. He added: “We have gone round over 20 states with these training programmes all aimed at making the teaming youths and women self-reliant in the face of high rate of unemployment in the country.
“We conducted another training sponsored by a Diaspora returnee and a medical doctor, Dr Alex Nnabue, who sponsored the training of 800 youths and women in Imo State on various vocational skills.”
The national coordinator said the youth and women were being trained on livestock and other farming business as well as how to make beads, wire works, soap/detergent, new media and website design, video production and photography, among others.
“It is the desire of Buhari’s administration to give the youth and women a sense of belonging in terms of economic empowerment and provision of social amenities to improve their standard of living.
“This skills acquisition programme, we believe, would go a long way in making the trainees employers of labour after acquiring the necessary skills of their choice,” he said.
On disbursement of funds to the trainees, Kyuka said: “We hope to finish with the south West states by May and there after begin the disbursement of funds simultaneously to all the affected states.”