Mr Hassan Mustapha, Gombe State Coordinator, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), on Friday said the federal government was addressing youth unemployment in the state.
Mustapha who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe said the government was concerned about the youth and how to engage them productively.
He stated that the federal government was empowering unemployed youths in the state with various skill acquisition programmes.
According to him, idleness leads to crime and drug abuse, making it imperative for youths to be engaged to make the society crime free.
“This is why the federal government through the NDE is empowering youths with skills, especially those without employment.
“The truth is government cannot employ everyone; this is why we are empowering them,” he said.
The NDE coordinator said the federal government was also using the empowerment programme to reduce poverty amongst youths in the state, adding that with relevant skills, youth could make themselves self-reliant.
“In line with the mandate of the directorate, youths are being trained and given the opportunity to become assets to the society to contribute to national development while making crime unattractive to them,” he said.
Mustapha said the NDE empowered no fewer than 11, 000 unemployed youths in Gombe State in various entrepreneurial skills in 2021.
He stated that the youth were given different trainings such as vocational skills development, school-on-wheels training for rural dwellers, basic business and small-scale enterprise training (for graduates on how to run businesses) and the rural employment programme.
Mustapha stated that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were also part of the training under the entrepreneurship development programme in the state in 2021.
He added that some of the trainees were given starter packs of N800, 000 in form of loans to help them establish their businesses.
He said the era of white-collar jobs was over in view of the huge population of youths and the limited resources available to government, hence he advised youths to embrace skills acquisition programme.
“We offer this training free of charge so youths should make themselves available to acquire skills, which will make them productive to contribute meaningfully to the society and the nation,” said Mustapha. (NAN)
