Governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto State has called on youths in the state to take advantage of the various skills acquisition programmes introduced by his administration so that they can become self-reliant.
He made this admonition via a statement issued by his Press Secretary, Abubakar Bawa, which was issued to newsmen in Sokoto on Sunday as the world marks this year’s World Youth Skills Day.
According to Aliyu, the present administration has since started skills acquisition programmes through the various departments in the state, with hundreds of youths being trained in different trades.
The governor stated, “We have graduated hundreds of youths who were trained in different skills acquisition programmes carried out by the Ministries for Local Governments and that of Social Welfare as well as the Department of Community Development.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg as we intend to train more and more youths across the 23 local governments of the state.”
Aliyu, therefore, restated the commitment of the present administration in ensuring that youths in the state are carried along in building a new Sokoto State that would be economically stable.
He stressed that the youth population having constituted a large number of the state’s population, must be made useful, productive, and self-dependent so that they can contribute their quota to the development of the state.
In his words, “We’ll soon make funds available to our traders and those in handcrafts and artisans to boost trade and commerce in the state.
“For our school drop-outs, we are introducing measures to take them back to schools to complete their studies.
“We are also working round-the-clock to improve our Adult Education Unit for our elderly ones to be literate,” Aliyu averred.
He called on the people of the state to support the present administration in its quest to make Sokoto better.
The governor wished the nation’s youth a hitch-free 2024 World Youths Skills Day.
Arewa PUNCH reports that July 15 of every year has been set aside as the World Youth Skills Day.