Guardian

TO address unemployment and poverty among youths, women and rural dwellers in Borno, the state government has engaged 64,400 youths in the massive construction of houses, landscaping and mass transit business, while nine skills acquisition centres are to be established at the cost of N816 million, the commissioner of Poverty Alleviation and Youth Empowerment, Dr. Zainab Gimba has disclosed.

The commissioner disclosed these in Maiduguri at a press conference to mark Democracy Day and second year in office of Governor Kashim Shettima at the Musa Usman secretariat complex.

She said the poverty and unemployment measures adopted by her ministry in the last two years has, however, yielded results of reducing poverty in the state by 30 per cent.

Her words: “As we continue to partner the various government and non-governmental agencies in the fight against poverty and unemployment in the state, we have targeted youths, women, the vulnerable groups of people and rural dwellers, as the ones been living below $1 or N160 a day. But with the focus and determination of the governor to address poverty and unemployment among the youths, over 64,000 people were fully engaged in either construction and building ventures or mass transit business.

“In any part of Maiduguri metropolis, you see most of these youths are fully engaged and busy doing one thing or the other in interlocking and landscaping the various roads and streets of Maiduguri. While in five council areas of Kukawa, Magumeri, Chibok and the Dalori areas and in the outskirts of Maiduguri, 222 housing units were completed by the youths.”

Giving a breakdown of the numbers of engaged youths, the commissioner said that under the state government’s training and empowerment scheme, a total of 37,600 youths were registered, while the mass transit scheme has engaged 100 beneficiaries, including 6,800 people that benefited from the distribution of poverty alleviation materials.

She further disclosed that about 20,000 youths were also engaged in the interlocking and landscaping of Maiduguri metropolis, along with the procurement and distribution of 100 units of hydra-foam bricks-making machines.