Group to generate database of 10m youths who were made poor by COVID-19

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

A Group under the auspices of Nigeria Youth Compact on COVID-19 (NYC-COVID) said it is generating a database of 10 million youths who lost their source of income and become poorer due to the hash economic impact of COVID-19 across the 774 local governments areas in the country.
National Coordinator of the organisation, Mr Gambo Suleiman-Haruna, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna yesterday.
This, according to him, will go a long way in getting the youth involved in COVID – 19 responses and support governments in mitigating impact of the pandemic, particularly on the youth.
“We are expected to generate a data base of 10 million Nigerian youth affected by the pandemic to inform government, development partners and stakeholders in response to the pandemic as it affects the youth.
“Without this data, there is little or nothing that can be done to reach out to the youth who are the worst hit by the pandemic,” he said.
Suleiman-Haruna urged governments at all levels and development partners to support youths, whose means of livelihood was affected by COVID-19 across the country.
He added that so far, 3.96 million have been captured into the database across the 774 local government areas in the country of which 187,848 were captured in Kaduna State.
He said that more than 20,000 youths had been trained in partnership with the Nigeria Youth Chamber of Commerce on how to access Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) COVID-19 loans.