[ad_1]
The North East Development Commission on Saturday graduated 150 automobile engineers, who went through a three-week skills enhancement training on digital vehicular diagnostics and automobile maintenance, from the Digital Bridge Institute, in Yola.
The Managing Director, NEDC, Mohammed Goni, speaking at the graduation ceremony, said the commission was making frantic efforts to address high youth unemployment in the North East through empowerment and entrepreneurial skills development that would make the youths self reliant.
He said besides the 150 graduands, another set of youths totalling over 5,000 trained in various entrepreneurship were now gainfully self employed.
The managing director noted that the focus on youths empowerment, by the commission followed the findings by the governing council that high youth unemployment and out-of-school children, were the two major challenges confronting the region.
He said, “The major issues that propped up in all the six states, is the problem of the high number of out-of-school children and youth that are unemployed and are yearning to be employed.
“The commission then decided in the short term to get our youths engaged. We know youths these days are very interested in ICT and can use their brains. So we decided that our youths who are capable can be engaged in various forms of entrepreneurship development.”
He, however, noted that in tackling the challenge, the commission had committed to building, at least one state of the art skills acquisition centre in each senatorial district in the region.
According to him, 18 centres were under construction with more to be established.
Goni expressed happiness that the NEDC was also able to stop the non-utilisation of the multi-billion naira facility, built under the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, in 2012, for use in the training of beneficiaries.
He said the idea of using the facility was first conceived three years ago, as one of those centres in actualising the vision of the commission, to empower youths in the region.
The aim, he added, was to break the jinx of the non-utilisation of the facility which he got to learn then had remained unused since its establishment in 2012.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, of the Digital Bridge Institute, Prof. Mohammed Ajiya, under the direct supervision of the Nigerian Communications Commission, and appendage of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, also said the Yola facility, used for the training, was the only one still fully functional out of three digital bridge institutes established 10 years ago, by the Jonathan administration.
The two others, which he claimed had also remained moribund and in a state of disrepair, were located in Asaba and Enugu.
[ad_2]
Source link
