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| Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje |
Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, has assured over two million youths would be empowered in his second term.
He said they will join one million youths already empowered as a way of reducing the high rate of insecurity, drug abuse and unemployment in the state.
Addressing reporters as part of events to mark the 2019 World Youth Day, Gandujeโs Chief Press Secretary, Malam Abba Anwar, said the administration empowered over one million youths within the last four years, building several skills acquisition centres, including the N4 billion Ultra-Modern Integrated Skills Acquisition Centre at Gurjiya town of Dawkin Kudu local government.
According to him: โBecause of our worry with the extent of persisting rate of unemployment among our youths who are productive and only waiting for the right leader and implementable policies, we as a government, come up with policies and programmes that will pave way for our youth to explore the numerous opportunities in the entrepreneurship that is being explored tremendously in other developed societies.
โTo cap it all, our state government has established Ministry for Youth and Sports Development, because of the special concern we have for our youth. Not less than 1 Million youth were empowered under Ganduje administration just in his first tenure in office.โ
Anwar listed some of the interventions of Gandujeโs administration in the area of youths empowerment and development to include the construction of N258 million worth Community Skills and Development Centres at Rumfa College, Kano and Dawakin Tofa.
โUnder this, MAFITA a DFID programme has provided the equipment and Master Craft persons for the Centres. We started with 360 apprentices,โ he added.
Anwar further stated: โAbout N4bn was used for the construction and procurement of modern equipment of an Ultra-Modern Integrated Skills Acquisition Centre at Gurjiya town of Dawkin Kudu local government.
โThe Centre provides 24 forms of trades. The construction is done and almost all the machines and equipment are procured. They have all being installed. The Centre is only waiting for commissioning.
โVery soon those who will work with the new installed machines would be taken to United Kingdom for specialised training on how to use the modern machines. All the machines were procured from the United Kingdom.
โWe sent 75 youth for auto mechanic training with Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Kaduna in Batch I.
โIn Batch II the state government sent 150 youths; of which 100 were male and 50 females. They all graduated since. And auto mechanic garages were constructed for them at different locations in the state.
โBatch III of such youths are currently at PAN Kaduna for the same training. We believe that it is high time for us to get modern way of servicing or fixing our vehicles. We train them and then empower them.
โKano state government, in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President then, in 2018, on Sustainable Development Goals in partnership with United Nations Human Settlement (UN-HABITAT) for the training of some selected youth on Renewable Energy Technologies and Green Entrepreneurship.
โThe state had a One Day Google Digital training for 7,000 youth that was conducted across the state.
โState government invited some unskilled youth 8,800 males and were given tN20, 000 each as start-up capital for small businesses. They were selected from across the 44 local governments of the state.
โSimilarly 6,600 female youth were also chosen from across the 44 local governments and were given the sum of Fifteen Thousand Naira each N15, 000 as start-up capitals for small businesses.
โA total number of 4,400 street hawkers were selected and were given the sum N20, 000 as additional capital for the growth of their businesses.
โAbout 8,000 youth were selected as beneficiaries of Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme, which started with the flag-off of 5,000.
โThat is out of the 45,000 potential beneficiaries slated for the programme.
โYoung pastoralists, 60 in number, were selected and sent to Turkey for training on Artificial Insemination.
โThey came back already and would be part of our workers for our upcoming RUGA Godโs Grace. These are young and promising Fulani youth.
โOperators of barbing shops, popcorn delicacies makers, spaghetti makers, tea vendors and other young men and women, over 5,000 of them were trained and were given N20, 000 as additional capital for them to grow well.
โThe state government sponsored 100 youth for a National Innovation Diploma programme at the Digital Bridge Institute, Kano.โ
