Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has Flaged -ff of the Maiden Skills acquisition training for 150 youths at the Federal Youth Development Centre, Mgbakwu, Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State.
The governor in his address said the target of the training is to help the youths achieve self-actualization.
He said “The 150 youths here today were selected from the 21 Council Areas of the state, made up of 70% women and amongst them are ten persons chosen from the Muslim Community in Anambra. The training is free of charge for a period of three months in specific faculties including ICT, phone repairs, confectionaries, cosmetics, inter-locking blocks moulding and tiling, POP and Wall Screeding etc.”
He revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had promised to give the State additional N5bn following the successful application of the initial N1.5bn adding that this would go a long way in helping many more youths to undergo training at the facility which can only take 150 students now.
According to him, other centres across the state like the Technology Incubation Centre Nnewi are also currently training two hundred and fifty youths and on completion the trainees would be issued with certificates and seed money as take-off grant.
He explained that due to paucity of funds, his administration had reactivated only 40 percent of the facility hence the number of trainees, adding that when it fully comes on stream, the facility would accommodate over 1000 trainees at a time.
The Federal Youth Development Centre, Mgbakwu, is on a 60 hectares of land, and was completed in 2008 but has since then been abandoned until the Obiano administration intervened and renovated the facility for training and other purposes.
The Commissioner for Youths Entrepreneurship and Sports Development, Dr. Uju Nworgu said that Governor Obiano matched words with action in positively engaging youths as leaders of tomorrow, adding that he was not only training them but also creating the enabling environment for them to explore their potentials especially in the Sports Sector.
Earlier in his speech, the Managing Director of Anambra Small Business Agency (ASBA), Chief Clement Chukwuka, noted that the Obiano administration set up the agency to drive the process of boosting activities of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the State through the provision of start-up funds and acknowledged that the programme was key in equipping the youths with the necessary knowledge and expertise that would make them attractive to financiers.
