By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin

My target is to make hundreds of youths millionaires in my constituency by empowering them with knowledge and kits that would make them extremely successful in life, says Hon Ahmed Adam Saba representing Edu/Moro/Patigi Federal constituency of Kwara state.

The member of the House of Representatives who was about two months in office said the gesture was part of the palliatives for the subsidy removal for people of his constituency.

He said this on Monday while declaring open the “Empowerment of Women and Youth” programme he executed for the first batch of One hundred carefully selected members of his constituency held in Tsaragi in Edu local government area of Kwara state.

The legislator explained that hundreds of youths including men and women would be trained on various skills of their interest, equipped with necessary kits and given the takeoff fund.

Alh Saba also said that the impacted knowledge and training would not make the beneficiaries sell the kits given to them as was the custom, knowing full well that their success and ways of becoming millionaires are locked inside of it.

The member of House of Representatives,a Farmer and Economist added that the beneficiaries would be followed up by a committee that had already been created to ensure that they do the needful.

According to him,”This is issue of food crisis in the country as a result of fuel subsidy removal, hence the need for this programme for hundreds of youth and women so that they can be independent on their own.

“The beneficiaries are not government workers but they have private businesses of their own and they are self-employed and if you give them this training, they will be self-reliant.

“This is part of palliative measures aimed at cushioning the effects of subsidy removal and it is part of my Constituency projects

“After the training, the trainers, i.e the facilitators will give them equipment and money based on the training they received because the training is for different categories. This will enable them to go and start their own businesses.

“Today, we are training hundred for the first batch and at the end of the today, we are going to organize for another hundred.

“We took our time to select the people that are here today and the best among them will still get more support from us. There are several arrangements we have on ground.

” For instance if you are trained as a fish farmer and we know you have established, we have a package for you. That is what we call follow-up arrangement after the training. We will not just give them the training but we are going to follow it up so that there is going to be business owners tomorrow.

“I’m a grassroot person, a farmer and a teacher and since when the Presidency declared state of emergency on food security, that was when the idea came so that we find ways on how to go about it. I can go and facilitate loans for these people because we have trained them and I know they can stand on their own.

“So, if you don’t train people and say you want to give them palliative, they will not utilize it well. Some of these people will leave here as farmers, some will leave here as job creators. And, if you give them fertilizer or other farm inputs, they will not sell them because they have gained the knowledge here and we have assured them that when they do well, they are going to be Independent and make more money.

“So, we want to build millionaires. These set of people will be millionaires in the nearest future. With what is happening in the economy now, so we need these youth to be well engaged so that they can run away for social vices.” he said.

In his address, the representative of the organisers of the Federal Polytechnic, Ukana, in Akwa Ibom state, Mr Adeyinka Julius said the training will provide the necessary skill for the trainees to become self-employed.

He said trainees will acquire various skills in Hairdressing, Cake making, Fashion design, Barbing, Fishery, and Poultry among others.

Mr Julius said the beneficiaries would be given capital to start their own business.

In his remark the Etsu Tsaragi,Alhaji Aliyu Abdullahi Kpoto, represented by the Makama of Tsaragi Alhaji Buhari Mohammed commended the organisers of the training and empowerment programme.

He advised the beneficiaries to use the training to develop themselves.

In his address the Chairman Edu local government area of Kwara state, Muhammed Aliyu ,said the training and empowerment programme will meet the yearning and aspiration of women and youth in the benefiting local governments.

He assured that the local government will replicate the same to cover more people.

Some of the beneficiaries expressed satisfaction with the quality of the training .

They however assured that they will use the skill acquired to start a business that will benefit them and their various communities

Two Hundred Women And Youth Train In Skills Acquisition In Kwara.