An NGO, Khadimiyya for Justice and Development Initiative (KJDI), in collaboration with Bashir Illo Foundation, has trained more than 100 youths on different skills acquisition ventures in its empowerment scheme in Kebbi.
The Publicity Secretary of the NGO, Alhaji Ibrahim Jambali, made the disclosure in a statement issued in Birnin Kebbi on Monday.
The statement quoted the Founder of the organisation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, as congratulating the graduands for successfully completing the training programme.
Malami, who is the Minister of Justice and Attorney- General of the Federation, also announced an undisclosed cash donation to each of the participants, in addition to the start-up grants already packaged by the two foundations.
Malami commended Illo foundation for finding Khadimiyya worthy of the collaboration, saying that human capital and youth development would continue to remain his utmost priority.
Earlier, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Khadimiyya, Alhaji Abubakar Gotomo, said that the NGO was founded solely for humanitarian activities, including job creation.
He said that more than 1,000 youth had so far benefited from the organisation’s skill acquisition programmes and had since become self-reliant.
Gotomo urged the graduating youth to put the knowledge they had acquired during the training into practice.
“Khadimiyya has successfully enrolled more than 500 entrepreneurs under the Federal Government’s Agri-Business/ Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMIES) where each of them can access loans ranging from N1 million to N5 million.
“This is first of its kind in the state,” the chairman said.
Also speaking, Illo said that he was encouraged to seek for collaboration with Khadimiyya, considering how the foundation had been touching many lives through its numerous intervention programmes.
He said that each of the 100 participants would go home with start-up grant, in addition to the cash donation by the minister.
Illo said, “My foundation will continue the partner with Khadimiyya to get rid of youth unemployment and idleness.”
He also announced the donation of a Peugeot wagon to Khadimiyya on behalf of his foundation.
In his short remarks, the Manager of Khadimiyya, Alhaji Yahaya Koko, announced the enrollment of more than 200 new unemployed youths in to the foundation’s skill acquisition programme.
He urged political office holders to emulate Malami and embark on similar efforts at providing employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth in the state.
According to Koko, the foundation has been offering charitable activities in all the nooks and crannies of the state in the last eight years.