FG launches special public works scheme in Akwa Ibom to provide jobs for 31,000 youths

The Federal Government has launched a special public works scheme in Akwa Ibom intended to provide jobs for 31,000 youths in the state.

Governor Udom Emmanuel, at an event to kick-start the scheme, commended the Federal Government for the scheme, saying it “would shield the most vulnerable skilled, semiskilled and unskilled youths in the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom State”.

Udom who was represented by Moses Ekpo, the deputy governor, noted that the scheme would “bring them into a safety-net which has become all the more crucial given the harsh socioeconomic effects of Covid-19.”

According to him, with the recruitment of 31,000 youths in the state, communities would receive socioeconomic benefits through the activities of participants in the programme. He promised that the state government would continue to forge a greater partnership with Mr President in order to provide gainful employment to the teeming youths in the state.

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“if properly monitored and supervised, the programme will at the end of the day register such value-added success in which our youths would have leveraged on our Dakkada philosophy in order to deploy the skills and knowledge acquired to become self-employed,” he said.

Earlier, the Acting Director-General of National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, represented by Genesis Enechi, while lauding the participants in the programme, reiterated the core mandates of NDE being the exploration and promotion of the job creation potentials available within the public works sector.

The SPW Programme, according to him, “has been designed as a veritable tool through which lives of 774000 unemployed Nigerians will be positively touched in the next three months”, adding that “our communities will receive a facelift through the activities of the participants”.

He said they will engage in various community/environment-specific public works activities ranging from drainage clearing and maintenance, vegetation control, feeder roads maintenance, irrigation, great wall and orchard maintenance, among others.”

He also stated that “appropriate working tools as well as protective wears have been provided for all the participants in their daily work schedules.”

He assured that “all participants have been duly documented and their details captured by designated banks to guarantee a fraud free, transparent and fair service delivery.”

To ensure effective monitoring of the Programme, the Acting DG said that supervisors have been appointed in all the electoral wards of the country to conduct supervisory roles.

He however regretted that the 774,000 jobs initiative would have commenced some 3 months ago, but was delayed due to unnecessary and avoidable circumstances.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio stated that the Extended Special Public Works Programme is an outcome of the Pilot Special Works Programme in the Rural Area approved by Mr. President and implemented by the NDE in early part of the year.

Represented by Ubokutom Nya, stressed that the Federal Government would closely monitor the implementation of the Programme to ascertain the efficient utilization of every resource, human/material, committed to the Programme.