ANAMBRA STATE GOVT INSISTS ON APPRENTICESHIP SCHEME FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE

The Commissioner for Youth Development in Anambra State, Mr. Patrick Aghamba, says the government is working towards ensuring that every youth has employment in the area.

Mr. Agha Mba, who stated this in an interview with Radio Nigeria in Awka, said the New Order would be to send youths to professional skill factories, companies and outlets where they would be trained and certified before government could empower them with starter packs.

The Youth Empowerment Commissioner promised that the Governor Soludo led administration would not follow the old order where youths would gather in a hall for few hours in the name of skills acquisition programme as such arrangement was not in the interest of the youth.

Mr. Aghamba commended Governor Soludo for increasing the budgetary provision for the youth Ministry from about 500 million to 2.5 billion Naira in the 2022 revised budget and expressed the hope that more youths would be impacted positively.

He noted that the “One Youth One Skilled Trade Mark” model introduced by the new administration in Anambra State is targeting every youth to do apprentice before having a skill as obtained in the olden days in the South Eastern part of the country.

The Commissioner said the youth constitutes 65 percent of the total population of the state, a significant number that no responsible government could neglect.

Recall that the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU