Bauchi State Government is to embark on vocational training of youth within and outside the country and open up linkages for them with financial institutions to provide soft loans so that they can be self-employed, which is in line with the All Progressives Congress, APC’s objective of reducing unemployment.
Governor Mohammed Abubakar who stated this, Thursday, at the launch and distribution of 200 farm-to-market tricycles to internally displaced persons and the host communities in the State, revealed that the State Government has mapped out a number of programmes which include “provision of vocational training for the youth so that they can be gainfully employed”.
The Governor while observing that white collar jobs opportunities are no longer available to youth, said arrangements have been concluded to start implementing the vocational training programme of sending the trainees to various training institutions within and outside the country with which the State Government partners.
According to the Governor, agriculture is one other area that will be used to secure employment to youth, saying “in addition, a number of youth will be deployed into the agricultural revitalization programme where each Local Government will open large farmland which will be allocated to young farmers”.
Governor Abubakar therefore appealed to youth in the State to take advantage of the gesture and “avail themselves of the various programmes lined up for them so that they can be gainfully employed and become responsible citizens” and called on all stakeholders to help in moulding the character of the youth to make them responsible members of the society.
Governor Mohammed Abubakar noted that because of the proximity of Bauchi to the states where the Boko Haram insurgency is more pronounced, the State has received a large number of internally displaced persons who fled their homes in the wake of the insurgency.
He said the internally displaced people who fled the insurgency and settled in Bauchi “were accepted and accommodated with open arms and we have, in the true tradition of being our brothers keepers, made them comfortable by encouraging their host communities to embrace them and share their facilities with them”.
The Governor recalled that in May this year, he flagged-off the distribution of relief materials to the internally displaced persons in the State, while the wife of the President Hajiya Aisha Buhari also distributed food items to the displaced persons as well as their hosts in the State.
Governor Abubakar said “today’s event which is the distribution of 200 tricycles provided by the Federal Government through the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is therefore another demonstration of our commitment to improve the well-being of the displaced persons”.
The distribution of the tricycles which is aimed at providing gainful employment opportunities to the internally displaced persons and their host communities in the State with the aim of improving their economic status, is in line with the cardinal objective of the APC administration’s poverty eradication programme through the provision of job opportunities to the people.
