Kebbi State Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu on Saturday flagged off a programme initiated by the Hydropower Power Producing Areas Development Commission ( HYPPADEC), targeted at developing the youths.
The programme is entitled ,”HYPPADEC Youths Transformation in Kebbi State.”
Flagging off the Programme, Bagudu said the programme was targeting a very important sector of the society, the youths.
” It is one of those proud moments. We appreciate the MD for his dedication and patriotism.
“The creation of the commission was a very wise decision. The MD is both an Ambassador of Kebbi State and the commission,”he added.
The Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum also extolled the myriad of life-saving interventions of the Commission aimed at uplifting the living standard of the communities.
Bagudu was concerned that Hydropower power production disrupts the socio-economic activities of the riverine communities.
He said,” there should therefore be routine efforts to remedy the ugly situation and make the communities to meaningfully restart their lives.
“The commission has a lot of work to do. It must begin to give comfort to the various communities hosting hydroelectricity dams.
” Kebbi State contributes majority on this direction given the presence of the River Niger and even River Rima.
” Also, Kebbi state has the least water retention. There should be nationwide drainage masterplan.
“This is to reduce the menace of flooding and increase support to livelihoods in these communities.”
Bagudu also stressed the need for effective collaboration between the States and the commission to do better for the unemployed youths in the HYPPADEC States.
He pledged that the Governors will do more to support the commission to achieve more.
HYPPADEC Managing Director, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, expressed appreciation to Bagudu for being instrumental to its take off and even signing its Act in 2010, when he was a Senator.
He extolled the governor for his unparalleled commitment to development of youths, saying,” he has love for the youths of Kebbi State.”
Yelwa also stated,” no governor can match the support of Bagudu to HYPPADEC. We will remain eternally grateful to him in this direction.”
Yelwa also commended the governor for the invaluable role he played in ensuring his emergence as the pioneer MD of the commission.
The MD also stated that participants with HND or Bachelor’s degree would receive a monthly stipend of N15,000 while non HND and degree holders would be given N10,000 as support to encourage them concentrate .
The State Coordinator of HYPPADEC, Adamu Zubairu Utono in his welcome address, described the occasion as historic while urging the participants to listen attentively in order to gain from the program.
Dr. Mahmud Muhammad Umar, Director Community and Rural Development, HYPPADEC gave an overview of the program saying that in Nigeria as at the last quarter of 2020, 25.87 percent of people were unemployed in the country.
According to him ‘ From that figure, 34.67 percent were unemployed in Kebbi and 24.6 percent of that figure were youths’, he averred.
He said in view of that , HYPPADEC planed to reduce the number of unemployed youths through the Youth Transformation Program in Kebbi State by 1000 .
Umar expressed happiness that 90 percent of completed forms have been returned by youths in the State, an indication of how anxiously youths embraced the program.
He further stated that 36 trade areas have been identified and a curriculum manual was developed by HYPPADEC in collaboration with Professors, New Approach and NDE amongst others.
He charged the participants to take the program very serious in order to achieve the desired objectives.
One of the technical partners of HYPPADEC, Dr. Lillian Omeka’ra remarked that Kebbi State was one of the States that greatly benefited from HYPPADEC Program and youths in the state demonstrated lot of enthusiasm to join the program.
She explained that the program was carefully designed to empower youths with skills using a manual developed by experts.
HYPPADEC according to her would transform the youths to become self employed as well as job employers .
She explained that the commission was looking into a number of innovations and programs to bring succour and comfort to people affected by disaster.
” HYPPADEC is looking into so many innovations , to bring succour to people within its limited resources to do many things.
” We are trying to introduce Mosquito bracelets, build a rescue village which is a makeshift accomodation to give shelter to people who are displaced.
‘ They are also into doing or making snake or reptile repellant which works for 3 years. We as their technical partners are ready to support them ‘, She averred.
