The Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, has disclosed that the state selects over 100,000 youths every year for Information and Communication Technology training. Meanwhile, in a bid to reduce the cost of transportation fares in the state, the governor launched 31 more mass transit buses. Speaking last Friday in Yola during the empowerment of over 40,000 women under the Fintiri Business Wallet under the Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation Agency, the governor said that the training is to actively engage youths in productive ventures and reduce crime in the state.
“Through our ICT-for-Empowerment corridor, we are training over 100,000 youths with the necessary skills for survival, “ Fintiri stated. He added, “Starting with a grant of N50,000 to each of the 10,000 beneficiaries across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state, the corridor has so far empowered at least 10,000 women petty traders.” “Today, we are disbursing another N50,000 to each woman in the second batch of the beneficiaries to either support or start-up trading.
“What this means is that going by the UN definition of a household, meaning; a woman and four other persons eating from the same pot, we shall be empowering about 4000 households holding not less than 100,000 persons annually,” he estimated. The governor stressed that the Ministry of Entrepreneurship has been following up on each beneficiary to provide the necessary entrepreneurial support, pointing out that globally, micro businesses have been recognised as the engine of economic development and growth of any country worldwide. Related News Adamawa gov approves N70,000 minimum wage for workers Fintiri bans political aides from trips outside Adamawa NECA to train youths in ICT He noted that access to finance and power such engine has been a huge challenge, especially for the operators at low business owners.
“The challenge is double-fold for women as it becomes feminised by credit conditions imposed by lending institutions and the nature of the businesses which sucks large population of the womenfolk,” he said. The Adamawa helmsman maintained that after initially purchasing 10 luxurious buses, he added another 31 mass transit luxurious busses to alleviate the transportation problems in the state. “Today, I am happy to tell you that I am handing over these buses to the concerned operators for onward deployment to our roads and usage of our people.
“We are also going to allocate a substantial number of the busses to our schools to fix the harsh transportation hardship experienced by our students,” he stated. In his remarks, the Director General of PAWECA, Dr. Michael Zira commended the governor for the proactive measures he is taking for youths and women’s development.
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