Federal government says it has earmarked twenty five billion naira as youth intervention fund in the next year’s Budget toward ensuring development of youths in the country.
The Minister of finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmad stated this while speaking with news men shortly after meeting with Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe at government house Kaduna.
Hajiya Zainab Ahmad said the fund was meant to support youths to actualise their businesses and develop their skills in order to be more productive and employ others.
“What we are doing at the Federal level is that, we have set aside N25billion youth fund. It is actually a N75bn fund for three years. So, we are starting with N25bn for 2021. The fund is meant to support the youths in being able to actualise creative and entrepreneur ideal that we have, so that, they can be more productive, be their own bosses and employ other youths”
The Minister who was at Government House Kaduna along side her Counter part of Environment, Dr Mohammed Mahmud said, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed his Ministers to visit their various states to find out what the State Government is doing in engaging the youths.
According to her, Kaduna State Government has present excellent report to them on all it’s plans and effort undertaken to support the youths.
“We are at Government House in response to the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to all Ministers to come back home and engage stakeholders within the State to see how best Federal Government can support them in an effort to handle the security issue at this time especially ENDSARS protest.
Hajiya Zainab Ahmad described the meeting as productive, stressing that, many issues were discussed with a view to support the State.
She urged the Nigerian youth to take the advantage of the Federal Government various youth empowerment programmes to achieve their full potential.
Also Speaking, Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammed Mahmud said Kaduna State Government had made tremendous effort in engaging youths in meaningful ventures by creating various intervention programmes aimed at supporting them.
Dr Mahmud explained that, the Ministry of Environment is one of the ministries involved in the 774,000 jobs which has built various recycling plants in the States that are engaging the youths in terms of employment .
“We have just gotten approval on our new policy on plastic waste management in the country, this was approved by the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday”.
According to him, his ministry is working on several initiatives that will create employment opportunities and create wealth for the youths.
Deputy Governor of the State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe implored youths in the State to look into issues deeply before embarking on any protest.
“Kaduna has been peaceful. We have to give appreciation to all the people of Kaduna State for the peaceful way they have conducted themselves”
AMINU DALHATU