By Anayo Okoli

UMUAHIA — THE Federal Government has said it provided jobs for over 25,000 graduates under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Programme, SURE-P’s Graduate Internship Scheme, GIS, saying its target is to engage 50,000 by the end of this year.

About 100 of these graduates are engaged in Abia with 24 firms partnering with the Federal Government on the scheme.
Each graduate serves for 12 months and receives N30, 000 monthly stipend.

The scheme, according to Mr. Peter Papka, GIS Project Director, was designed “to enable our unemployed graduates to be placed in interested and demonstrated viable companies where they would be mentored and supported to develop or strengthen their core employability skills to enhance their access to quality employment opportunities.”

Papka who was represented by Mr. Anthony Kalu, at a feedback interactive session with the Abia interns and the firms where they work, yesterday, in Umuahia, said the meeting was to assess how the interns were doing with their various firms.

“The mandate by the GIS to engage 50, 000 within two years is no mean feat. So far, over a half of this figure has already been achieved.