Agency procures waste recycling plants
Segun Awofadeji
26 June 2010
Bauchi — The Bauchi State Commission for Youth and Women Rehabilitation and Development (BACYWORD) has procured three recycling plants for installation in each of the three Senatorial Districts in the state expected to generate over 5,000 jobs to the unemployed youths across the 20 Local Government areas in the state.
Director-General of BACYWORD, Professor Musa Maisamari, who disclosed this to members of the state Correspondents' Chapel of the NUJ, Bauchi while presenting the score card of the Commission in the last three years of its establishment, said the waste-to-wealth project was initiated" to achieve double-barrel purposes of providing gainful employment opportunities for our idle youths and rid the society and environment as a whole of the pollution being posed by plastic and other polythene materials".
Maisamari also disclosed that in partnership with eight Nigerian universities, the Commission has secured admission for 6,017 indigent students into those tertiary institutions to undergo wide ranging programmes from degrees, remedial and certificate courses, due to the financial incapacitation of their parents.
According to him: "As the partnership subsists, the Commission has concluded arrangements with these institutions which included three polytechnics and College of Education, Azare and the eight universities to place 1,500 candidates in the 2009 academic session".
He added that: "for those who do not have requisite qualifications for entry into higher institutions, the Commission engaged the services of a private firm, Messrs Yankari Academy, who was vested with the responsibility of registering our youths to re-write their NECO and WAEC examinations as well as JAMB, and through this process a total of 2,200 students were registered during the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 session with over 90 per cent success".
Under the skills acquisition programme, the Director-General further revealed that the Commission has trained over 9,000 youths in various trades pointing out that already, the state Government has entered into partnership with a Financial institution, specifically the First Bank Plc and the sum of over N475 million has been set aside for disbursement to graduates of different skills as interest-free loan in cash and kind".
"the Government in collaboration with a private security firm, Messrs Spider Web Security Nig. Ltd trained and deployed over 2,000 hitherto restive youths to secure Government Ministries and parastatals against vandalisation and ensure orderliness in all public functions across the 20 Local Government areas of the state", he further added.
Maisamari explained that the Governor Isa Yuguda Government in collaboration with Messrs Cosmoplitan Cleaners Ltd engaged 1,900 youths and women in cleaning major streets in the state capital and the headquarters of the 20 Local Governments and the 21 General hospitals in the state saying that the partnership has greatly improved the sanitary conditions of the cities and hospitals across the state.
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