3 January 2009
Sokoto — Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State has said his administration spent more than N500 million on the skills acquisition programme in more than one year.
Wamakko, who disclosed this at the graduation of 1,213 youths who were trained under the programme, said the youths were trained in tailoring, hair dressing, computer appreciation, electrical/electronics, auto-mechanics, vulcanising and motorbike repairs.
Reports said the state government had distributed working tools worth more than N101 million to the graduands as soft loans.
Similarly, they were given take off grants ranging from N5,000 to N30,000 to enable them start small scale businesses.
Speaking on the occasion, Wamakko said the programme was conceived to reduce the rate of unemployment in the state.
"This is part of our efforts to reduce the menace of youth restiveness due to unemployment and idleness," he added.
Wamakko warned street urchins popularly called "area boys" to abandon the habit or face prosecution.
"You should seize the opportunities offered by the myriad of skills acquisition programmes and become self-reliant and be useful to yourselves and the society," Wamakko added.
The governor also advised them to abandon such bad habits as street rascality, drug addiction and other crimes.
Wamakko emphasized on the need for youths to be morally upright, saying, "you should be able to contribute to the socio-economic development of the state".
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