Lagos Empowers 500 Youths
The Lagos State Government through its Ministry of Science and Technology has empowered 500 youths through training to make them self-employed at the end of the programme.
Speaking on the programme the Commissioner for Science and Technology, Hon. Dr. Hamzat Obafemi Kadiri, said: “The training will provide the participants the art of repairing GSM handsets and making a living out of it.
At the end of the course, each of the participants will be given tool kits/bag and a one-time minimal take-off grant. The rationale behind the one-time take-off grant is to assist the graduands overcome their initial financial problem.
“As you know, having the grant will assist them in producing cards, flyers and so on to advertise their new skills to their potential clients. It may interest you to note that the overall benefit of this bold initiative to the families of the beneficiaries and the society at large cannot be quantified as it is capable of transforming the lives of the jobless youths, who otherwise could have been used for illicit acts due to idleness,†he added.
According to Kadiri, 500 youths are to be trained, and so far about 250 have already been trained. Due to the impact the programme on the state’s economy, unemployed youths and school leavers have increasingly clamoured for more of such programmes.
The ministry has in the last three years successfully organized ICT empowerment programme for school leavers and unemployed youths in the state. The programme, which comprised mainly of PC assembly and website design course, exposed  participants to ways of generating income with little or no dependence on their parents or guardians for financial assistance.
The programme has also helped in taking a sizeable number of the beneficiaries off the streets, thereby significantly reducing the number of idle youths across the state. Meanwhile centres to train mobile phones repairers have been opened.
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