Gov. Aliyu sponsors 2-week Skills Training for 50 youths to drive 9-Point Smart Agenda
Gov. Aliyu sponsors 2-week Skills Training for 50 youths to drive 9-Point Smart Agenda 
From Bashir, Rabe Mani in Sokoto
Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, has personally sponsored a two-week skills acquisition training programme for 50 youths in the state as part of efforts to implement his administration’s 9-Point Smart Agenda.
The training programme was inaugurated by the State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Development, Dr. Bashir Muhammad Achida, who represented Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto at the ceremony.
Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Achida said the empowerment programme is integral to the 9-Point Smart Agenda of the present administration, stressing that no society can develop without empowering its youths.
“For every society that wants to develop, that society needs to empower its youth. Go to about 73 to 75 percent of population are youth within the age of 31. So the remaining 27 percent are from 31 to even 100.
“So if you empower your youth, you are empowering the majority of the society and the engine room of the society,” he said.
He charged the beneficiaries to pay full attention to the training, acquire the necessary skills and ensure they implement what they have learnt.
According to him, government will not just stop at training them but will follow up to ensure the skills are utilized for their own benefit and for societal benefit.
“Each and every one of you comes from a particular home. In that house, you have a responsibility, if not for anyone, at least for your mother, and your father, and other siblings.
“And also you have a responsibility for the society. So if one person is empowered, the entire household is empowered,” he added.
Dr. Achida further revealed that the selection process was deliberately made inclusive, noting that no top government official nominated his sibling, brother, sister or son, but rather beneficiaries were picked from other homes to spread empowerment.
In his remarks, the Director-General of the Sokoto State Contributory Health Management Agency (SOCHEMA), Alhaji Yusuf Abu Abdulkarim, said the programme was initiated after youth leadership in the state engaged Gov. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto on the need to train youths to become self-independent.
“On the important occasion where some leadership of youth in the state decided to engage His Excellency for the need to train some youth in the state so as to make them to be independent on themselves.
“Based on that he personally gave some support for the training to be carried on,” Abdulkarim said.
He said the 50 beneficiaries will be trained in different fields, ranging from repair of phones, solar power installation and repairs, as well as other vocational skills, urging them to remain committed and focused.
Abdulkarim assured that at the end of the training, whatever is needed for them to establish their own businesses will be provided, as already supported personally by Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto.
Also speaking, Alhaji Murtala Bala, Director-General, Investments, underscored the imperative of the training in massively reducing unemployment and poverty across the state.
According to him, the youths will be made self reliant and productive to themselves, their families and the society in general.
Also speaking, the Training Facilitator, Alhaji Yahaya Dogon Daji, also lauded the Governor for personally sponsoring the scheme, saying that it has a myriad of positive multiplier effects on the economy of the state.
A cross section of the trainees applauded the invaluable gesture of the Governor, promising to be serious during the training session so as not to defeat the aims of the noble initiative.
