Three hundred youth including the physically challenged selected across twenty local government areas are to be trained on smartphones repairs under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of the Federal government.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq while disclosing this during the flag off of the training held at Professor Iya Abubakar center in Bauchi said the aim was part of efforts of the government to reduce poverty and unemployment rate in the country.
Sadiya Farouk who explained that the target beneficiaries would be provided with Starter Packs and deployed to Master Craft Persons for a 6-month apprenticeship said the programme will create wealth opportunity for the teeming unemployed youth in Bauchi.
She said the smartphone repairs is used to pilot the N-Skills program, which is part of the N-Power non-graduate programme of the national aspiration of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The Minister disclosed that the N-Power program in Bauchi State has increased from 12,878 deployed under Batches A & B to 16,820 under Batch C and over N6.2 billion would be spent for the training, payment of monthly stipends to the beneficiaries among others.
Sadiya Farouk said the N-Skill training would span through 6-week and designed to equip target beneficiaries with life, vocational and entrepreneurship skills preparatory to the work-based learning during the 6 months apprenticeship towards certification by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
She explained that the Ministry is working with carefully selected consulting firms to provide the N-Skills training services for 6,475 unemployed youths across the Federation.
Speaking on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics STEM project, which is part of the N-Power Junior program, the minister said the federal government is setting up STEM centers in 12 Federal and State Government schools in Bauchi.
Sadiya Farouk who said the government was focused on its promise to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years said that the government kept budgeting $1billion annually on the Social Investment Programme.
High point of the event was the inspection of the STEM projects at Federal Government Girls College, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Special School in Bauchi metropolis.
Cov/Alhassan Usman/ Bauchi
