Fed Govt trains 9,500 youths in Ebonyi

The Federal Government has started training no fewer than 9,500 unemployed youths in Ebonyi State in a bid to shore up jobs in the state. The trainees are being coached in various skills.

The programme is part of the fifth phase of the government’s youth empowerment scheme across the country under the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

Acting Director General of ITF, Mr. Dickson Onuoha disclosed this in Abakaliki during flag-off of the programme.

“The fifth phase of the programme will cover 18 states including the FCT with 500 youths expected to be trained in each state,” she said.

She said the areas where the state beneficiaries will be trained include tailoring and weaving, welding and fabrication, carpentry and joinery, shoe and bag-making, masonry and bricklaying.

She said, “These trade areas were carefully selected based on their anticipated value addition to the citizens of the state and the potentials to provide sustainable means of livelihood”.

The state governor David Umahi said  his administration  was poised to develop the capacity of the youths to become self-reliant.

He called on the youths of Ebonyi who are jobless in other parts of the country to return home and find something meaningful to do under his government’s youth-oriented programmes.

He said: “Every Ebonyi youth in other parts of the country especially Lagos should please come back home; we are ready to create jobs for them.

“A day is coming when nobody will be willing to seek political office because of the current reality.  One day, there will be no kobo from the Federation Account so it high time we started thinking outside the box.”

The governor said his administration would create over 100,000 jobs for the youth and women especially in the agriculture sector. He said the state now focused mainly on mechanised system of farming as according to him “agriculture without technology is death.”

Governor Umahi promised to provide the trainees with financial assistance to enable them set up their businesses after acquiring necessary skills from the programme.

The ITF Area Manager in charge of Enugu and Ebonyi states Mrs. Linda Egbonu said the programme was organised to develop the mindset of the youths in the areas of entrepreneurship and skill acquisition.

Source: The Nation