“Kano Empowers Over 200,000 Youth in Three Years,” Says Ganduje

Kano state government has empowered over two hundred thousand (200,000) youth in an effort to fight poverty and create a welfare state,  within the period of three and half years.

The state governor Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje reveals this at the official launching of empowerment programme for 4,400 petty traders and flag-off of two-day training for agric-business/small and medium enterprises investment scheme (AGSMEIS), at Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium, Kofar Mata, Kano.

A statement signed by Chief Press Secretary to Kano State Governor  Abba Anwar said at the launching ceremony the governor noted that  “These include the empowerment of 4,400 street hawkers and flag-off of the federal government’s training of 45,000 beneficiaries of Agric-Business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme,  for which we are beginning with the first phase comprising of 5,000 participants.” The government of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of

To also review how his government started in empowering youth Ganduje said “As you are aware, from the inception of this administration to date, we have engaged ourselves into multi-faceted actions in order to arrest and averse the unacceptable and rephensible chronic youth unemployment in Kano and therefore, came up with an array of programmes aimed at challenging the problem in a passion.”

By way of breaking  down the number of beneficiaries to the public, the governor added that, the relentless efforts of his government towards such endeavors, which has resulted in taking over 50,000 of youth “…away from the hopelessness and uncertainty of the unemployment market through the various initiatives we introduced.”

Other empowerment programmes as explained by the governor included “…ICT training and empowerment for youth, implementation of various skills acquisition and empowerment programmes for over 5,000 small business operators and unemployed youth across the state.”

The state government partners with government agencies and other non-government bodies, as being acknowledged by the governor that, “The government of Kano state has also been in partnership with the federal government agencies, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BoI), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), International Donor Agencies to empower thousands more youth on various skills acquisition programmes.”

According to Ganduje, the state government is presently supporting 5,500 beneficiaries of Business-Based Training (BBT), drawn across the state with the sum of Twenty Million Naira (N20m), as business plan fee, training fee and account opening. This, according to the governor “…is done with a view to further reduce the menace of unemployment in our state.”

As a strategy to also curb the menace of clash between farmers and herders, as a way of empowering them, he said “Sixty (60) young pastoralists on artificial insemination to train them in modern way of insemination.”

For the street hawkers, the state governor discloses that, “As part of our continuous efforts in that direction, today we are disbursing the sum of N20,000 to each of the 4,400 street hawkers drawn from different points of sales in the state capital where these energetic young men operate.”

Both the representatives of the CBN and NDE commends Kano state government for unrelenting efforts and commitment towards the development of human resource.