The Kwara State government is floating a QuickWin empowerment and employment scheme through which 8, 200 youths would be provided job opportunities this year.

In the first phase of the scheme, the government said it would employ a total of 5, 400 youths.

The programme will cover six broad areas of entrepreneurship scheme, clean and green programme, Kwara bridge empowerment programme (KWABES), Kwara environmental corps, the state Road Traffic Maintenance Agency (KWARTMA) and the Kwara State signage and advertising agency (KWASAA).

The chairman of the committee set up by the state government to implement the programme, Alh Isiaka Gold, who is also the secretary to the state government during a media chat in Ilorin, gave the break down of the 5, 400 jobs to be offered to the youths in the first quarter of this year.

He said a total of 1, 872 youths would be engaged under the entrepreneurship cadre; 1, 872 under the clean and green programme, 350 under the Kwara bridge empowerment programme; 1, 100 youths under the Kwara environmental corps, 156 under KWARTMA and 50 under KWASAA.

The SSG said that the employment scheme is open to all youths resident in the state, irrespective of gender, political, religious and ethnic affiliations or state of origin.

He said that in order to ensure equity and even spread of the available job opportunities, "These positions will be distributed at the community level in consultation with community leaders to ensure grassroots penetration.

"Interested youths should therefore obtain forms from the youth empowerment coordinators at their various local government headquarters. Let me assure those interested youths who are not engaged in the first phase of the programme that an additional 200 youths will be engaged monthly until the whole 8,200 are fully absorbed.

"Finally, unlike other schemes, financial provision has been made for this intervention to ensure sustenance and prompt payment of beneficiaries' stipends."

Shedding more lights on the Kwara QuickWin intervention, the senior special assistant to the government on youth employment, Alh Saka Babatunde, noted that, "Effective development can only be from bottom to top. This development is about rural development; hence the state government has decided to redouble its effort in ensuring that we bring ourselves closer to the people, especially to the youths who constitute over 65 per cent of the state population.

"QuickWin which has the potential to bring about the economic desires of the Ahmed administration is part of the synergy between the government and the youth where the government identifies the unique needs of the youth and begins to run an open system of government".

According to him, through this intervention, beneficiaries who are graduates, following a partnership arrangement between the state government and the Kwara State University (KWASU) and Kwara State Polytechnic, will acquire relevant skills. These institutions will develop curriculum that is workable.

"The graduates will acquire skills by receiving classroom entrepreneurship training for two weeks and another two weeks of internship. The non-graduates will be attached to accredited master trainers and skills acquisition centres to learn trades available under the scheme for the period not exceeding 12 months depending on the nature of the training. Each trainee will receive a monthly stipend as part of the incentives of the programme.

"Consequently, the trainees will be clustered into cooperatives and provide access to affordable SME micro credit facilities to start their business, subject to a viable business plan".

Describing Kwara as an example of a youth-friendly state, the SSA explained that additional responsibilities in keeping with the demands of the youth empowerment office moved the state government to invigorate the office, particularly following the successes recorded in Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWWABES) in the last two years.

According to him, the recent introduction of the QuickWin scheme is basically to take KWABES to the next level in the area of job creation. He said the scheme will also look at other possible areas to create jobs especially for the non-educated youths and to recruit people to take care of personnel request from the MDAs.

"In the last two years, the bulk of the work has been handled by the KWABES trainees; hence, adding more people to the system on a stipulated monthly stipend ensures that the youth will continue to gain useful experiences which prepare them for a better tomorrow and deployment to organisations under government sector, especially those who need them.

"The white collar jobs in existence were probably prepared for the 20th century generation. We are in the 21st century and it has become obvious that the century needs to create jobs for its own generation.

"It is noteworthy that India, a country that is home to about two billion people has 95 per cent of its working population in the private sector. This shows that Nigeria is not yet where it ought to be in the scheme of things because of unresolved salient issues in the areas of infrastructure, electricity, road network and tax regimes, among other factors".

Explaining the role and the contribution of the state government through the youth empowerment office, the SSA said that the new local government administration in Kwara State is poised to take up key responsibilities in job creation through the needle of service and commitment.

He noted that recently, the chairman of Isin local government came up with the empowerment of over 100 youths in various vocational skills acquisition, training in ICT, agribusiness and transportation to mark his 100 days in office.