The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdlfatah Ahmed, has said that vocational training and youth  empowerment remained the key to addressing the unemployment challenges confronting the nation.

Governor Ahmed stated this at the Youth Empowerment and Social Support operation (YESSO)  meeting held at the state Banquet Hall in Ilorin, the state capital, recently.

The governor said his administration, in line with the Federal Government SURE-P Progra-mme, has updated its database to include uneducated youths and school drop-outs to ensure effective engagements of the teeming youth population.

Governor Ahmed said the Malete Youth Farm, Old Yidi Road Fish Farm and the upgrade of three Technical Colleges in the three senatorial districts of the state were all geared towards achieving his administration's youth empowerment programmes.

He assured participants that various other programmes were ongoing to ensure that the youths were adequately catered for to reduce the tendency towards various social vices.

While congratulating the Federal Government and the World Bank for taking youth matters seriously, the governor, represented by his deputy, Elder Peter Kisira, expressed optimism that the YESSO meeting of relevant stakeholders across the country  would yield the desired results.

In his remarks, the Leader, Public Sector Group of the World Bank, Professor Folusho Okunmadewa, said the Federal Government was ready to support the state government (KWABES) programme to increase employment capacity of the state government.

Professor Okunmadewa who spoke later in an interview, explained that the idea of the meeting was to allow input by every state government into the generic paper being developed by the World Bank to assist the employment drive at the various tiers of government across  the country.