BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto
Rather than waiting for white collar jobs which is not there, you can create wealth for yourselves by becoming entrepreneurs, Alhaji Ibrahim Ladan Argungu has advised Nigerian youths.
Argungu, who represented the Director VSD of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Abuja gave the advice in Sokoto during the official flag off and orientation ceremony of Demand Driven Skills Training (Quick Fix) second phase and that of Technocultural Crafts Training Scheme (Tecrats).
The NDE Director, while assuring that participants of the programme will soon become stars in no distant time as their services will be needed by all, said the high population in the north provides them ample opportunities to become wealthy.
To the Nigerian unemployed youths, Argungu said, “do not wait to become a liability on your parents or anybody. And you must not understand English, go to school or have much money to become entrepreneurs.”
While noting that as entrepreneurs, they will not only become self employed but employers of labour, Argungu appealed to them to revive and modernize the lost cherished crafts of the region.
Speaking on his part, Sokoto State Acting Coordinator of NDE, Malam Muhammed Umar Sanda Gusau stressed that what they are doing is a practical expression of the statutory mandate of NDE which seeks to create mass employment opportunities for unskilled and unemployed persons in Nigeria.
Muhammed Sanda Gusau, who spoke on behalf of the Director General of NDE, Malam Abubakar Nuhu Fipko said 50 participants will be trained in cultural crafts such as pottery, Hat/Cap weaving, Beads making, Leather Works, Beauty Therapy, Soap Making, Barbing, Tie and Dye as well as vulcanizing that are now demand driven.
In his appeal to other tiers of government and the private sector to join hands with the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration in the fight against mass unemployment, Malam Nuhu Fipko further said the federal government alone cannot create jobs for everybody.
In his goodwill message, Bodinga Local Government Desk Officer of NDE, Malam Sani Sifawa said despite being a civil servant who has served for close to 30 years, he earns more from his handiworks than salary.
Collaborating the assertion, Dange Shuni Desk Officer of NDE, Alhaji Abubakar Mode Shuni appealed to participants to take the scheme seriously, adding that it has the potentials of changing their lives for good.
Reacting to the opportunity given to them, one of the participants, Yahaya Muhammed said he graduated from the University since 2016 but had remained unemployed till date.
On behalf of the female participants, Umuh Mohammed equally thanked the NDE for considering them worthy of such skills training.
