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Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has launched the State Youth Empowerment Scheme (OgunYES) with a call on youth to key into the scheme to develop themselves for a secure future.
Abiodun who spoke while launching the scheme at the June 12 Cultural centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, to mark this year’s National Youth Day with the theme, ” Youth, skills and insecurity; Connection, Cost and Opportunities, said the scheme would focus on training participants to become artisans, such as bricklayers, carpenters, welders among others.
The Governor explained that participants would be selected from those already registered on the job portal and those who would be registering to be matched with off-taker organisations, in both the public sector and private sector with beneficiaries receiving allowances during the skill acquisition programme.
He noted that the new empowerment scheme was another window of opportunity for all youth, particularly artisans to realise their dreams.
“This empowerment programme will accommodate 250 youths from each of our 20 Local Government Areas – this means 5,000 youth across our dear State. And, we are particularly delighted that this initiative will be another boost to employment generation, poverty alleviation and food security in our dear State. And, very importantly, it is a veritable approach towards placing our youth at a vantage position as proud inheritors of the future that we are building”, Abiodun explained.
In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Oludare Kehinde, while reeling out some of the achievements of the administration in youth empowerment, said the programme came at a time when issues concerning youth are currently at the front burner nationally.
Delivering a lecture on the theme of the celebration, a social entrepreneur and founder of Rise Network, Mrs. Toyosi Akerele- Ogunsiji, berated past and present leaders for neglecting the youth for too long, stressing the need for them to organise themselves and aspire for leadership positions.
She opined that the EndSARS protest was a reflection of anger in the land, adding that it was time to fix education and create jobs to channel youth energies into viable productivities.
Founder and Senior Pastor, Victory Life Bible Church, Apostle Lawrence Achudume, enjoined the youth to embrace entrepreneurship, while the Chief Imam and Lecturer, Department of Arabic and Islamic studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Associate Professor Akeem Akanbi, spoke on the need for the youth to be disciplined and lead an upright life, urging religious leaders to help in bringing up the youth in a righteous way.