Ondo spends N100m on job creation
From Julius Alabi, Akure
OVER N100 million has been disbursed as loans by the Ondo State government to unemployed youths, among other categories of people.
The State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Youths and Social Development Aderonke Ajayi Olufolaji disclosed this in Akure yesterday at the launch of a job creation scheme by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).
She said it was a cardinal objective of the state government to alleviate poverty.
"This becomes even more worrisome if we consider that today, unemployment is extremely high among young school leavers and graduates even for specialised professionals like teachers, engineers, pharmacists, etc," she said.
The commissioner noted that the government alone could not check unemployment and that was the reason it was collaborating with the NDE. She commended the NDE for considering youth employment, as this required special attention from the Federal Government.
In his address, the Director-General of the NDE, Samuel Adelokun explained that a total of 74,000 new jobs would be created nation-wide.
"Under this current exercise, each state of the federation and Abuja is to benefit with 2,000 chances, 1,000 will benefit under the Vocational Skills Development Programme for National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) trainees as well as 50 trainees under the school on wheel will be recruited," he said.
According to him, 50 persons each will be recruited under the Environmental Beautification Scheme and the National Sanitation Employment scheme while 25 persons will be trained under the Professional Pupillage Scheme.
He warned that truancy would be seriously viewed saying, "you are therefore advised to always be at your training lessons because only then will you be able to benefit from the facility available to you optimally".
Earlier in his welcome address, the state Co-ordinator of the NDEC, Mr. Patrick Osi Isedu said the orientation they were doing was to property explain the various schemes to the prospective beneficiaries.
He noted that all trainees would receive N500 monthly for the duration of the programme. The graduates who would be supervisors under the beautification scheme would receive N5,500 per month and non-graduates would get N3000.
