By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
No fewer than 5,000 youth between the ages of 18 to 35 within Kaduna State were empowered at One-Day Training in five centres across the three Senatorial Districts in the state on Monday.
The youth who thronged the venues located at Zaria, Kafanchan, Kachia, Murtala Muhammad Square and the Ahmadu Bello Stadium were trained on how to effectively use the internet and its resources in becoming self reliant and employers of labour in the long run.
Several resource persons were mobilized to all the centres to carry the participants through various skills acquisition on online operations in the training with a theme: ‘Diversifying Nigeria’s Economy Enabling Youth Through Digital Skills Training’.
In an interview at the Ahmadu Bello Centre, Director of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Mr. Nuhu Moses explained that the training was done in collaboration with the office of the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on (SDGs), Google and the Kaduna State Government.
He said that already, a similar training has been conducted in Sokoto, Kebbi and Jigawa ahead of Kaduna in the North West geo-political zone, adding that same will be carried out in Kano, Zamfara and Katsina states.
“The training is expected to be an empowerment for every youth that attends. When you build the capacity of someone through training or education, you have empowered them. When they are taught how to take advantage of the internet, they can see available opportunities there, which they never knew existed.
“By that you have empowered them. Some of them from today would be able to travel to China, US, South Africa and other parts of the world,” he added.
Speaking on phone with our correspondent, the CEO of Kaduna ICT Hub, Engineer Bashir Yusuf, who are the technical partners, said that Kaduna will not remain the same again after the ICT revolution that is set to take the state by storm.
He was optimistic that there would be a multiplying effect in terms of job opportunities from the training.
Yusuf assured that similar trainings that would further consolidate on what the youth have learnt would be held subsequently.
