President Muhammadu Buhari has urged private sectors across the 36 States of the federation including the federal capital, Abuja to show interest in employing Nigerians youths in their institutions.
President Buhari made this call in Abakiliki on Monday during the official flag off of the Extended Special Public Works Programme (ESPWP) held in Abakiliki.
He explained that the initiation of the programme nationwide, was his administration’s goals towards addressing the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic and the #EndSARS mayhem.
He added that COVID-19 pandemic which gripped the whole world early last year, caused an enormous economic dislocation in the country, stressing that it further aggravated the rate of unemployment in the nation.
“On this note, I will like to use this opportunity to call on the private sector to show interest in employing Nigerian youths essentially these participants after they have acquired knowledge and skills in the process of implementing this programme.”
President Buhari who expressed confidence in the economy future of the participants, noted that the programme would empowered some of them to be self-employed.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Ebonyi state Extended Special Public Works Programme of the federal government, Dr. Edward Nkwegu said the federal goverment would spend about seven hundred and eighty million naira in three months’ implimentation of the programme in the state alone.
“The 1,000 persons recruited per local government area would be engaged by the federal government between January to March this year.
“And they will be paid the sum of 20,000 each for the three months period and Ebonyi has recruited a total of 13, 000 persons drawn from the 13 LGAs in the state”, he stated.
It was gathered that those recruited were mostly women and were given tools for effective takeoff which began this month.
The President was represented at the event by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.
