Anambra govt to empower 130,000 youths under internship programme

Anambra government announces it plans to empower no fewer than 130,000 youths in the first phase of its “One Youth, Two Skills Solution” programme.

Mr Patrick Aghamba, Commissioner for Youth Empowerment, said this in an interview in Awka on Friday, adding that the pilot scheme of the programme has started with 5,000 trainees in 468 centres spread across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.

Aghamba said the programme, aimed at equipping young people in between the ages of 18 and 45 years with two marketable skills, is in line with the promise of the government to ensure that youths were supported to become economically viable.

The commissioner explained that the programme is an adaptation of the Igbo Apprentice System, otherwise known as “Igbaboyi”, with owners of the skill centres as master trainers.

He said the training period ranged from four months to nine months and covered skill areas including fashion design, confectionery, information communication technology, automobile mechanic, agro techniques, tiling, and painting, among others.

“We are targeting 130,000 trainees for the first phase of the programme but now we have 5,000 in our pilot programme because it is the first time the state government is embarking on this type of massive empowerment.

“It is for Anambra youths between the ages of 18 and 45. They can apply through their Town Union Presidents General and Local Government Secretariat.

“Trainees will go through five stages in the course of the training, including apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, business financing, cooperative and mentorship,” he said.

Aghamba urged Anambra youths to embrace the programme by registering and following the training to the end as the government had provided a training allowance that would cushion their transport fares and sustain them during the training period.

He warned that master trainers and trainees who did not keep to the rules would be delisted as there was an effective monitoring and evaluation system in place.