Federal government says fifteen thousand out of school children in seven states will benefit from a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme to become self employed.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Education Interventions, Mr Fela Bank Olemoh stated this during a courtesy visit to Kaduna state Deputy Governor at Government house Kaduna.
Mr Olemoh said the purpose of the visit was to inform the Deputy governor on the preparation for the take-off of Project T-MAX.
According to him, Project T-MAX is a technical & vocational education and training programme approved by the National Steering Committee on National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy, as one of the core interventions to achieve the federal government goals of lifting one hundred million Nigerians out of poverty.
Mr Olemoh noted that, the pilot phase of the project would run from August till December this year in seven states which include Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Enugu, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Gombe.
He further explained that the program will be scaled up by next year to cover over a million people, stressing that more than fifteen skills would be deployed across the pilot states.
The Senior Special Assistant also solicited for the nomination of key government officials who will work with their officials in the state.
According to him, strong partnership with state governments is critical to achieve the ambition of lifting one hundred million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030.
He added that, the programme would be carried out through Industrial Training Fund and States own TVET centres.
Responding, Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe represented by the state Commissioner Business, Innovation and Technology, Professor Kabiru Mato described the project as laudable and timely especially to Kaduna which is among the states in the pilot phase of the project.
Prof. Mato explained that, the state government has initiated series of programmes to provide economic empowerment for youths and women as as well to promote private investments.
According to him, Kaduna State Government welcomed the Project T – MAX training proposal with high expectation and expressed hope that the programme would achieve a hitch-free implementation.
He said Kaduna state remained committed to ensuring that enabling environment is created for the smooth implementation of the programme.
He appealed to the team to consider the inclusion of other trade areas in the future, such as agricultural value chain among others.
AMINU DALHATU
