FG to budget 1.2 billion naira on Youth Employment

MINISTER of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed yesterday that the sum of N1.2 billion has been reserved for Youth Employment Programme, YEP, in the 2012 budget in order to empower over 36,000 youths. The Minister, who disclosed this in a Ministerial briefing, held in Abuja, stated that that government has sought for the service private sector to provide training for the beneficiaries of Yep. “Programme coordinators have been selected from the private sector to establish the baselines for the YEP trainings. The ongoing implementation process targets 36, 000 youths who will undergo employability/work readiness and vocational
training and then given job placement with business support and credit”. Abdullahi said. In a detailed breakdown of the program, the Minister said, “YEP is an integrated intervention. However, it will follow a sliding scale model, with 80% of beneficiaries moving to vocational training, 50% to placement and 20% receiving business support/credit”. Abdullahi said that the sum of N200 million has been made available to Ministry by the Millennium Development Goals, MDG, to ensure the training of youth in various areas of endeavor, especially in the area of Agriculture. “We are facilitating Nigeria’s participation in the Junior Professional Officers Programme, JPO-P, of the United Nation. $18 million has been earmarked for this in the 2013 budget for the training of 100 Nigerian youths to acquire hands-on experiences and employment opportunities in international organizations”. The minister noted. He stated further that the success recorded so far, notwithstanding, the Ministry is currently been faced by insufficient fund to run its empowerment program as well as delay in the release of fund. According to him, “insufficient and late release of fund, inappropriate selection of youth participants for training programmes by the states, little or no access to micro-credit facilities for the trained youth among others are major problems facing the ministry at the moment”