Delta: Okowa Tackles Youth Unemployment, Flags Off Training Programme For 1, 645

SAN FRANCISCO, August 26, (THEWILL) – Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has flagged off a training programme for 1,645 youths in the state, saying his administration’s interest in Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) was informed by the need to tackle youth unemployment.

According to Okowa, more than 90 per cent of businesses in Nigeria employ less than 100 persons which put them in Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) category, asserting that it is a sector that can get most of Nigerian youths off the street.

The governor flagged off the training programme Wednesday at the Songhai-Delta, Amukpe, Sapele local government area of the state.

He congratulated the participants at the orientation course, saying more than 70,000 persons applied for the empowerment programme.

Okowa said the scheme was being executed in phases and the introduction of this scheme has enabled government to develop a database of the unemployed in the State, disclosing, “by the next six months when the next phase begins, we will simply pull out the next set of participants from the database, so, there is opportunity for as many as are qualified to be enlisted in subsequent phases of the scheme.”

The Commissioner for Economic Planning in the state, Hon. Kingsley Emu, had in a welcome address said, the participants’ spirits were high and assured that at the end of the day, they would surpass the governor’s expectations.

Also, the Sole Administrator of Songhai-Delta, Dr. Theophilius Okpidi, in an address, thanked Governor Okowa for revamping the centre.

The inauguration ceremony also featured cultural and other skillful display by the trainees