The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, has said the Akwa Ibom State Government plans to train a total of 31,000 youths annually through Arise Youth Skill Centres proposed across the state’s 31 local government areas.
Mr Eno stated this on Tuesday during the commissioning of the Arise Youth Skill Centre in Oron Local Government Area, describing the initiative as part of efforts to decentralise youth empowerment and bring skills acquisition programmes closer to people at the grassroots.
This initiative follows the training of 3,000 Akwa Ibom youths in 2021 under the “Ibom 3000 projects” by the previous administration led by Udom Emmanuel.
The governor said the centres were conceived to ensure that young people no longer need to travel to Uyo, the state capital, before accessing government-backed training and empowerment programmes.
“The creation of a standalone Ministry of Youth Development was aimed at giving focused attention to youth-related interventions across all local government areas,” Mr Eno said.
