The distribution of two billion naira as grants to 5,000 graduates of the One Youth Two Skills initiative of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, has been described as a significant step towards fighting crime and insecurity in a sustainable manner.
The acting National Youth Leader of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu made the disclosure on Friday during the Graduation, Certification and Start-up Grants Ceremony of 5000 Anambra Youths under the One Youth Two Skills initiative of the State Government.
Governor Soludo had at the ceremony presented varying sums of grants, ranging from N500,000 to N1,000,000 to the graduates, who were trained across various skills under the entrepreneurship and apprenticeship systems.
Okpalaezeukwu, who heads the youth wing of Ohaneze Ndigbo, believes the governor has by the initiative, taken a major step towards solving the insecurity impasse in the state.
This according to him, is because the engagement of the 5,000 youths in gainful ventures, has automatically made them unavailable for crime and other negative ventures.
“Anambra State under Governor Soludo has again recorded a major milestone by this initiative.
“Recall that the governor had in his manifesto, promised to raise 1,000 youth millionaires annually. These graduates under this program, with the grant they have been given, will go ahead to become wealth creators and employers of labour.
“By so doing, many of them will become millionaires, billionaires and even so much more.
“For me, the key thing is that the governor did not just teach these youths how to fish, he also gave them the nets, the hooks and other equipment to fish.
“These ones will have no reason whatsoever, to look in the direction of crime. This is what Ohaneze Ndigbo under the leadership of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has been preaching and it is such a delight to see Governor Soludo thinking in this direction.
“This is consistent with the apex Igbo socio-cultural group’s vision to build the Igbo land of everybody’s dream,” he said.
The Ohaneze youth leader commended the way the program was designed to first empower the youths with skills before providing them with seed capital.
He also applauded the mentorship and business development support which the government has negotiated with some partners, to enable the beneficiaries grow their businesses.
According to him, this will ensure that the grants are not wasted.
Okpalaezeukwu reminded beneficiaries of the program that they have a huge responsibility to take up the challenge of building other youths who were not fortunate enough to benefit from the process.
He said with the grants they can become creators of wealth and labour, moving other unemployed youths out of the unemployment net.
He said, “The governor has set the ball rolling, it is now the duty of the beneficiaries to see to it that this initiative blossoms, by appropriately deploying the start-up capital to grow their businesses.
“We are looking forward to a spike in the number of start-ups in the state, as well as Small and Medium Scale enterprises, who are the actual drivers of any economy.
“The challenge is now theirs and we are hopeful that they will not betray the trust reposed in them by Mr Governor.”
The One Youth Two Skills initiative was driven by the State Ministry of Youths, under Commissioner Patrick Agha Mba.
