The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Jigawa has trained more than 1,136 youths, women and artisans in Jigawa in various income generating trades in 2019.
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The NDE Coordinator in the state, Malam Abubakar Jamo, made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Dutse.
Jamo said the directorate also gave soft loans to 149 artisans and grants to small scale business owners within the period under review.
He explained that the beneficiaries were trained in the directorate’s departments of Special Public Work (SPW), Vocational Skills Development (VSD) and Rural Employment Promotion (REP).
The coordinator said that 50 youths were trained on interlocking stone production and landscaping under its Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTC).
According to him, 22 unemployed graduates were engaged by the directorate under its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP), also part of the SPW.
Jamo further said that the unemployed graduates were engaged and sent to teach in various schools in the state in order to gain experience and skills that would make them employable in the labour market.
He added that 535 youths were trained on mobile phone repair, motorcycle repair, auto-mechanic, auto-electric repair and satellite dish installation, all under Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (B-NOAS).
The coordinator said another set of 50 beneficiaries selected from hard-to-reach areas were trained on the repair of mobile handsets under the directorate’s School-on-Wheel Programme (SOWP).
According to him, the NDE also had trained 50 youths in various agricultural farming schemes in the state.
Jamo said the beneficiaries were trained in gardening, poultry production, small ruminant production, aquaculture as well as processing and marketing.
He stated that the youths received the training under the directorate’s Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (SADTS).
According to him, under Small-scale Enterprises (SSE) and Micro Economic Enhancement Scheme (MEES), the directorate within the period under review offered soft loans to 149 artisans.
Jamo said 13 of the artisans were given N85,000 each, 36 received N50,000 each, 40 collected were N40,000 each, while 50 others were given N10,000 each under SSE scheme.
He explained that under the MEES scheme, 330 small scale business owners were given grants of N10,000 each to enhance their businesses.
According to him, the beneficiaries were selected from five selected local government areas of the state.
Giving the breakdown, the coordinator said 100 were given the N10,000 grant in Kazaure, 50 in Gumel, 50 in Ringim, 50 in Dutse and 30 others in Hadejia.
Jamo assured that the directorate would continue to evolve new skills in its training schemes to create more jobs among youths and women in the state.