The Niger State Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) office has trained additional 500 youths and women in Briquettes making and borehole repairs in Zone C, at Kontagora Local Government Area of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the State SDGs office had in July and Aug. 2020, trained no fewer than 1000 youths from Zones A and B in Suleja and Bida Local Government Areas of the state, respectively.
Launching the programme on Monday, Gov. Abubakar S. Bello said it would provide jobs to teeming unemployed youth and women in the state, through vocational skills acquisition on briquette making, identifying briquettes as a bio-gas invention used as a charcoal substitute.
Bello added that the programme would also enable them to become self reliant and contribute positively to the socio-economic and political development of the state.
” We will continue to support SDGs and other agencies in the provision of critical interventions to improve access to portable drinking water, quality health care services to our communities” Bello also said.
The Governor, who was represented at the occasion by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ahmed Matane, said that the programme had proven to be a source of employment for teeming youth and women with interest in and commitment to take vocational jobs very seriously.
Earlier, the Director-General, Niger State SDGs, Abdullahi Arah, described “the turn out recorded in Zones A and B at Suleja and Bida local government areas, as quite overwhelming”.
Arah said that the State SDGs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Development, had developed a road map to provide alternative solutions that would support a green economy in the state as well as safeguard its environment.
He explained that the aim of the training programme was to equip the youths with technical skill that would enable them repair broken down boreholes, while imploring the participants to take the training programme very seriously as it was coming to them ”on a platter of gold”.
NAN reports that the participants were drawn from Zone C, which comprises Kontagora, Rijau, Magama, Wushishi, Rafi, Mashegu, Mariga, Borgu and Agwara local government areas.( NAN)
