Some youth in Bauchi state have commended the National Directorate of Employment (NDE)’s renewed hope mass employment programme in the state.
A cross session of the youth who are beneficiaries of NDE’s various empowerment programmes, commended the Director General of NDE, Silas Agara for coming up with such a ‘life saving’ initiative on Tuesday, when a training supervisor visited the centres for inspection.
Muhibah Abdullahi, one of the trainees under Fish Production and Feed Formulation Techniques Scheme, said that the training was way above their expectations.
She said “initially, we never thought it would be this well organised, well structured training and the resource persons we have are well skilled and knowledgeable.
“We have learned a lot already under this scheme such as hatching, sorting, raring, even smoking of fish.
“Even for feed formulation, we have been taken to some of the production companies and we have seen how they formulate the feeds and we have been given the explanation in detail.
“Words cannot express our appreciation for the Director General of NDE but we can only say thank you to him and the federal government for this training”.
Abdullahi however, wished for the programme to be expanded so as to reach a large number of unemployed people across the country.
Just as she expressed gratitude to the NDE, she called on the federal government to help them with starter packs which would allow them to put what they have learned into practice.
Also, Musa Baraya, another trainee, commended the NDE for selecting them to be part of the training as well as imparting in them the necessary skills and techniques needed for fish production and feed formulation.
“I want to call on other trainees across the state to be focused and have the mindset of putting what they have learned into practice.
“I know we can't do it by ourselves and that's why I'm calling on NDE to help us with the necessary resources to help us put it into practice and also to become employers of labour,” he said.
Also, a trainee under Community Based Agricultural Training Scheme of the NDE, Ahmed Jubrin, said that the trainers have been doing everything possible to ensure they learn all the farming skills.
According to him, they have been taught site selection techniques, cultivation, as well as plant monitoring among others.
“All of us here are willing to go into agriculture and we are hoping to get capital to start our farming business.
“Looking at the agriculture sector, it's contributing a lot to the country’s economy and this is the right time that we need this agriculture for the whole nation’s growth,” he said.
In his reaction, Mr Mohammed Gwaza, a supervisor from Rural Employment Promotion of the NDE headquarters, said the training was the modest short term effort of NDE at checking the scourge of unemployment in Nigeria.
He explained that the move is part of the Director General's commitment and President Bola Tinubu’s charge to overhaul the Directorate with a view to repositioning it for optimised employment creation.
He lauded the commitment, diligence, self determination and punctuality of both the trainees and the trainers.
It could be recalled that NDE flagged off a three-month skills acquisition training for 2,156 youth on December 5, 2024 in Bauchi state.
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