No fewer than 5,000 youths from the six pioneering member states of the National Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (N-HYPPADEC) are to receive skills acquisition starter packs soon.
The Managing Director of the commission, Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, disclosed this during a stakeholders meeting on Sustainable Youth Development Programmes in the Modern Era, held with Commissioners of Youth and Sports Development and Chairmen of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) of member states of the commission, which took place at the commission's headquarters in Minna on Tuesday. Alh. Yelwa said that the commission has concluded necessary arrangements for the distribution of the starter packs to the beneficiaries, pointing out that commissioners of youths from the six pioneer states as well as the chairmen of the NYCN of the member states were to be engaged in the arrangements for the distribution.
According to him, the involvement of the commissioners was to ensure the success of the distribution of essential equipment to the beneficiaries.
The Managing Director of N-HYPPADEC, however, said that the commission decided to empower the youths through skills acquisition training in various vocations as a result of unemployment, which he identified as one of the major factors that adversely affected the lives of youths in the power-producing areas of the country.
He further said that unemployment has also been promoting violence and all sorts of crimes, insecurities, and delinquency, hence the need for the commission to train them in order to keep them off the streets and distribute starter packs after their training, which spanned between three and six months.
Speaking on the breakdown of the beneficiaries among the six member states, the managing director disclosed further that 1,515 youths from Niger State benefited from the training, while Kebbi has 1,070, Kwara has 1,814, Kogi has 625, Benue has 671, and Plateau has 308.
The first edition of the training, according to him, included fashion design and tailoring, house painting, brick laying, plumbing, flooring, photograraphy, hair barbing and styling, auto mechanics, and electrical engineering.
The plan for the take-off of the second edition of empowerment and job creation, which will last for one to three years, will target advanced skills such as laptop and phone repairs, solar power installation, and CCTV camera installation, among others.