The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Office has begun advanced vocational training in Tourism and Hospitality for 100 ex-agitators in Niger Delta.
The training commenced on Saturday, at the Centre for Vocational and Entrepreneurial Studies, Yenagoa.
The Coordinator, PAP, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh, said the trainees were expected to be equipped with skills that would help them earn a living.
Boroh said the training would also enable beneficiaries to gain entrepreneurial education and reduce the high unemployment rate in the region and the country at large.
He added that the training, which would be in batches of 100 each, was expected to be completed in six months.
Addressing the trainees, Boroh urged them to be dedicated to learning and assured them that they would be assisted in their chosen field of specialisation.
He said the training was part of PAP’s reintegration programme and reminded them of the conditions for the training which included beneficiaries must train at least 20 other youths in their field.
“By the time each of you train 20 of your peers back home, we will have 2,000 skilled workers or farmers in various fields.
“That would generate jobs and wealth for the youths and contribute to our national food security”, he said.
Boroh, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, was conducted round the huge centre which specialises in training youths in Catering, Fashion Designing and Bead-making.
In his welcome address, the Rector of the institute, Mr Samuel Timi, said the institute had the potential to build the capacity of the Niger Delta tourism sector and contribute significantly to the revenue profile of the region.
Timi expressed optimism that if capacity building programmes like the current one were vigorously pursued and sustained, the region would become the next Dubai of Africa.
In her remarks, Bayelsa State commissioner for Tourism, Mrs. Ebiere Musa, charged trainees to maximise the knowledge they acquired to move the region forward.
Musa urged beneficiaries not be complacent, but should work hard towards achieving their goals.
She disclosed that the state government had reached an agreement with a Sri Lankan hospitality-based organisation to award full scholarships to trainees, who excelled to go for further study in that country.
Speaking on behalf of other beneficiaries, Mr Ohwofasa Kingsley, from Delta State, thanked the Federal Government for the gesture and promised not to defeat the aim of the policy.
Kingsley urged that the gesture be extended to other Niger Delta youths to reduce unemployment and youth restiveness in the region. (NAN)
AIR/DOR/AFA