NEDC Empowers 204 Youth On ICT, Donates Starter Packs Of N20,000

Ayuba Mafi

The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has empowered two hundred and four trainees on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with starter packs of twenty thousand naira each to encourage them to establish their own business

 

Presenting the certificates and cash to the trainees at the graduation ceremony of the 2nd batch NEDC ICT training programme and handing over of agricultural machinery inputs, which held at the Banquet hall Government house Bauchi,

 

The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed said that the NEDC has been meticulous in the area of I.C.T training, provision of agricultural machinery and inputs, stressing that the two sectors are driven by the youths who suffer from the problem of unemployment, which has led a lot of them into restiveness and social vices.

 

Represented by his Deputy, Senator Baba Tella, the governor said that the intervention will serve as a catalyst for reducing and mitigating youth employment and boost entrepreneurship, thereby making the youths productive and responsible citizens of the state.

 

“As you are aware, agriculture is the mainstay of our economy as it serves as a veritable source of employment to over 60 to 70 percent of our labour force. However, the sector for some time has been battling with insufficient machinery and inputs, thereby hindering the growth of mechanized agriculture in the state and the zone”

 

He said in order to reverse the ugly trend, priority has been given to the agricultural sector by the present administration and the management of the NEDC just as he commended the efforts of the NEDC for complementing the efforts of the state government for providing the state with agricultural machinery and farm inputs that will boost agriculture in the state.

 

Earlier speaking, the Managing Director of the NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said that the commission had earlier graduated on the 9th of February 2021, 176 youths who were trained on I.C.T, adding that the northeast region has the lowest literacy rate and the highest poverty indices among all the geopolitical zones of the country due to the activities of insurgents, which has necessitated the need for human capital development in the Northeast zone.

 

He said that the objective of the NEDC ICT programme is to improve access to Information Technology resources, within the North-East zone and empower the population with necessary vocational education, skills, and tools that can make them self-reliant.

 

While congratulating the graduates, he urged them to utilize what was learned during the training by becoming good ambassadors of the state, adding that the total number of graduate youths of Batch A and Batch B is now 378.