Date: 2016-11-08

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, intends to create no fewer than 40,000 jobs for youths through a training and empowerment initiative.

The Managing Consultant on the programme, Malam Nasir Abdulqadir, told newsmen in Ilorin on Monday that this would be achieved through the Saraki Employment and Empowerment Centre.

Abdulqadir said Saraki would on Saturday at the Banquet Hall of the Government House in Ilorin inaugurate the first batch of 250 beneficiaries out of the 10, 000 applications received.

He said that the senate president four months ago expressed concern about the rate of unemployment in the country and had conceived the idea which metamorphosed into the programme.

Abdulqadir said that Saraki shared his vision with consultants as well as development partners and application forms were made available to youths across the 16 local government areas of the state.

He said that the aim of the senate president was to directly train 40,000 youths from within and outside the state in skills that would make them compete favourably with their counterparts all over the world.

Some 40,000 youths, he said, would be trained in the next four years under the initiative with consequent significant impact on job creation and economic growth of the state.