By GABRIEL EWEPU

Worried by the high rate of youth unemployment in the state, Delta State Government is to employ over 20,000 youths in the next five years through the Small Public Works sub-component of the State Employment and Expenditure for Results, SEEFOR, Project.

In compliance with its mandate for human capital development, the state government continually creates more employment opportunities and promotes entrepreneurship by encouraging self-employment and self-reliance, encouraging youths to take to areas such as agriculture, organizing training and skill acquisition programmes that would benefit the youths and sundry in the state.

The Youth Empowerment Project, YEP, is another avenue through which the government has shown its seriousness to empower the youth and reduce unemployment.

Yet the government agrees also that training the youth to embrace skill acquisition programmes is a sure way to empower them.

To show its seriousness to tackle youth unemployment, the Delta State Government directorate of youth development recently held a human capital development initiative for youths.

The initiative was aimed at re-focusing the mindset of the youth early in their lives to embrace self-sustaining small and medium scale enterprises in other non-oil sectors.