In line with its resolve to eradicate youth unemployment in the state, the Kwara State government through the KWABES programmes has partnered with GLOBACOM Nigeria Limited on its public call office initiative.

Making this known during a press briefing in his office at the weekend, the special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Empowerment, Alhaji Saka Babatunde, said that the idea behind the initiative is to create empowerment opportunities, particularly for the unskilled youth.

According to him, “the content of the programme is distribution of Umbrellas, telephone handsets, Sim cards, recharge cards, tables and chairs to the benefiting youths.

“The first phase of the programme will absorb about 500 youths selected from across the 16 Local Government Areas of the state. Thereafter, there will be a quarterly review of the project to measure its impact on the economic growth of the state.

“The State government is investing about 20 million naira as counter funding to ensure the successful take off and sustenance of this programme. GLOBACOM Nigeria will take care of the balance of the project cost.”

The Special Assistant also said that apart from reducing the level of youth unemployment and creating wealth, the programme will be structured in such a way that the beneficiaries will over time become gold customers to GLOBACOM.

He added that there will be a four-day training workshop as part of the empowerment programme. The cost of this training according to him will be borne by GLOBACOM while the training will take place in each of the Local Government Areas.

“We are taking this training programme to where the selected youths will operate for us to understand the environment better. Most importantly, the state government plans to support this set of people by ensuring that the youth empowerment office serve as a kind of marketing unit in terms of assessing the business market and advising the youths on areas of improvement.

“This KWABES partnership with GLOBACOM is just one of the several programmes the government has approved to take off this month. We have instructed the youth empowerment coordinators in each of the Local Government Areas in the state to indentify the unemployed youths from their data base and make recommendations to the state office for selection”, the Special Assistant said.