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From John Adams Minna
In a bid to address the growing rate of unemployment among the youths in the country, the newly established Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) is to train no fewer than 5,000 youths under its Youths Transformation Programme (YTP) across the six states under the commission.
In Niger state alone, 1,400 youths are to benefit from the training Programme which the commission said will be done in partnership with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Minna based Institute of Technology and Innovation.
Flagging off the programme in Minna on Thursday, the Managing Director of the Commission, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa said the training programme will not only reduce the level of unemployment among the youths, it will curb youth restiveness and contribute to their living standard.
Other five HYPPADEC states that will benefit from between three to six months training programme include, Kogi, Kwara, Benue, Kebbi and Plateau.
Sadiq Yelwa explained that the training programme is in line with the federal government policy to take off the street those numbers of youths as a life changing skills acquisition exercise.
He disclosed that the training programme is both for graduates and non graduates with each participant entitled to a stipends of N15,000 for graduates and N10,000 for non graduates while at the completion of programme a starter packs will distributed to them.
The Niger State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Alhaji Mamman Musa represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Jonathan Wasa at the Flagg off, commended the efforts of HYPPADEC towards its youths empowerment programme and therefore urged the participating youths to leverage on the opportunity since the white collar jobs are not readily available for the teaming graduands in the country.
Earlier, the Rector of the Minna based Institute of Technology and Innovation, Dr Nana Ibrahim applauded the commission for the foresight, promising that the Institute will live up to expectations in its area of partnership.
He maintained that the Institute will only certified those that performed creditably well in the training with good character and therefore urged them to take the training exercise with all seriousness it required.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Abdullahi Salihu of People With Disability and Zainab Abubakar thanked the Commission for the life time opportunity and promised to utilize the opportunity maximally.
