President Muhammadu Buhari has instructed the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission to speedily end endemic poverty, unemployment and youth restiveness in the nine states that make up the Niger Delta region.
Speaking in Owerri, the Imo State capital, during the inauguration of the 6th edition of the Empowerment Support Initiative, founded by the wife of the Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Judith Amaechi, the NDDC Managing Director, Nsima Ekere, represented by the executive director in charge of projects, Samuel Adjogbe , said that the idea was to ensure that the youth and women of the oil-rich region enjoyed sustainable lifestyle.
Ekere disclosed that in line with the presidential order, NNDC had perfected plans to begin the massive empowerment of 5,000 women and youths in the nine states under its purview.
The NDDC boss disclosed that the idea was to ensure that issues of perpetual poverty, unemployment and youth violence didn’t continue to impugn the development of the Niger Delta.
Ekere said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the NDDC should make sure that over 5,000 youths and women in the Niger Delta are massively empowered and trained in sustainable skills in order for them to be gainfully employed.
“In line with the presidential order, we are beginning with training 5,000 people in the POP ceiling, tiling, electric wiring and other entrepreneurial skills. This is an opportunity to develop homegrown artisans. The massive empowerment is part of our responsibilities.”
Mrs. Amaechi, in her welcome address, said that her pet project which empowered one hundred people across the Niger Delta states was consciously determined to help NDDC and other development partners in eradicating poverty in the Niger Delta region.