The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has distributed brush cutters, head pans, wheelbarrows, machetes, sprayers, watering cans, brooms, buckets and other items as part of measures at creating 774,000 jobs for youth nationwide.
The items according to reports were distributed in Enugu at the launch of the “Extended Special Public Works Programme” of the federal government.
Speaking at the event, the minister disclosed that the gesture was part of government’s target of lifting no fewer than 100 million Nigerians from poverty in the next 10 years.
He also said that the event was a big leap in the government’s employment generation policy given the hardship faced by youths in the country.
Onyeama explained that the time to get things right had come as the fresh 17,000 jobs will help provide the beneficiaries with opportunity to feed themselves, acquire certain technical competencies and improve on their resources.
This, he said explained why some Nigerian youths undertake dangerous journeys across the seas for greener pastures.
On her part, the Deputy Director, Accounts and Finance of the National Directorate for Employment (NDE), Josephine Onuka, said that the programme would help ameliorate the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to her, the Extended Special Public Works programme was part of efforts aimed at curbing poverty and joblessness in the country.
Earlier, the Chairman, Enugu State Selection Committee, Chief Gbazuoagu Nweke, urged the beneficiaries of the programme to use the opportunity to lay their hands on useful small scale enterprises.
Nweke said that 17,000 beneficiaries selected from the 17 local government areas of the state were participating in the programme.
He said that the programme was designed to impact on the lives of vulnerable youths.
