By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna.
The federal government and the World Bank have rolled out a new job creation programme to assist indigent youths across the country as part of measures to redress poverty, unemployment and check social maladies.
The programme powered by the World Bank, is tagged Youth Employment and Social Support Operation, (YESSO).
The YESSO is a World Bank initiative packaged to provide increased access to emploment opportunities for youths from poor households through a well structured training programme schedules to be handled and coordinated by the National Directorate for Employment, (NDE).
Under the new partnership between Nigeria and the World Bank, the NDE is the implementor for the training for skills for job training where beneficiaries are expected to be imparted with vocational know-how on different spheres of technical vocations.
The seven states of Niger, Kogi, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross River, Eketi and Oyo are listed for the pilot scheme of the project.
Selected youths from the poorest of the poor in communities and households in wards from the benefiting states were carefully chosen an insider source told our correspondent in Minna.
Those selected are to be trained for nine months where they would go through life skills training, vocational/sector specific/technical skills training, entrepreneurship skills acquisition training and internship and apprenticeship training in the first three months of their knowledge acquisation exercise.
In Niger state, 1,232 youths from different wards across the state are listed as beneficiaries of the skills for job World Bank’s initiative.
As prelude to the commencement of the training, the NDE office in Minna, Niger state is organizing orientation course in conjunction with a private sector player for the impartation of the required knowledge.
State Coordinator of the NDE, Engineer Abdullahi Baba-Mni, disclosed that the compulsory orientation course begins next Monday for selected beneficiaries from Chanchaga. The orientation course holds at the U. K. Bello Arts Theatre.
Prospective participants from Bida area would commence their orientation programme on Thursday, 23rd March at the Bida Town Hall.
It is expected that after the training exercise, each of the trainees graduates from the benefiting states would be given starter packs by their respective state governments to start their own businesses.