Ebonyi: Over 13,000 youths to benefit from 774,000 FG Public Works Programme
Jacob Ogodo, Abakaliki
Over 13,000 youths from Ebonyi state are to benefit from the 774,000 extended Public Work Programme of the federal government with expectation to become self-employed and employers of labour after period of three months the programme will last.
President Muhammad Buhari stated this in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital during the flag-off of the programme for the state with the state National Directorate of Employment(NDE) as the supervisory agency.
Buhari who was represented by Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, called on private sector to show interest in employing the participants after they have acquired additional knowledge and skills in the process of implementing the programme.
He noted that the programme was introduced to reduce hardship and suffering in the country with 1,000 unemployed youths benefiting from each of the 774 local governments across the country.
Onu said “Covid-19 pandemic shake the whole world which resulted in enormous economic dislocation in our country. This further aggravated unemployment problems as many factories and businesses were closed in an effort to reduce the spread of the pandemic.
“Mr. President in his determination to reduce hardship and suffering in our dear nation, took the decision to offer assistance to as many as 1,000 unemployed youths in every local government area in the country.
“Here in Ebonyi state, as many as 13,000 youths will benefit from this programme. The aim of this programme is to help in the maintenance of public work of his various government.
“By this programme, the participants will help in the maintenance of public works owned by the federal, states and local governments. This project has a life span of three months.
“It is expected that both the knowledge and skills acquired in the execution of this project will be helpful in making the participants become self-employed later in life. I will like to use this opportunity to call on the private sector to show interest in employing these participants after they have acquired additional knowledge and skills in the process of implementing this programme. Many of the participants in this programme will in the future become self -employed and also ultimately become employers of labour”, he said.
In his address, a Director at the NDE headquarters, Abuja, Dr. Michael Mbata who represented the Acting Director-General of the Agency, Malam Abubakar Nuhu said the Agency as the apex job creation Agency of the federal government, NDE in the last three decades has been in the fore front in the fight against poverty and joblessness.
He noted that under the successful conduct of the pilot states of the programme within the first quarter of 2020 in eight states of Adamawa, Borno, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Jigawa, Katsina and Kwara, President Buhari approved the implementation to all the 36 states of the federation and FCT. ENDS
