FG trains 100,000 youths on brick moulding

No fewer than 100,000 youths are to benefit from a special bricks moulding training programme, Amb. Obi Adim, the Special Adviser to the President on Youth Empowerment, said on Monday

Adim, who was represented by the National Coordinator of IYEEP, Mr Nwoke Obinna, said this at Apo village, Abuja, while inspecting brick-moulding machines imported from South Africa for distribution to all the 36 states of the federation.

According to him, 774 of the machines will be distributed to the states for training designed to uplift the socio-economic status of the prospective beneficiaries under the Integrated Youth Economic

Empowerment Programme (IYEEP). “We are passionate about transferring this skill and this skill is

all about brick-making. We know that we have our normal brick moulders. “But, this one is not like what we used to know. We have an automated machine, imported equipment, which we are going to use to produce these bricks in commercial quantity. “Not just producing in commercial quantity, we are giving you fabricated bricks that are not too common in Nigeria and that will also help us in the area of building collapse.“ Adim said that the machines, which cost $120,000 (N1.9m) per unit,

would also be used in producing other cement-related products such as interlock tiles and rings for culverts. He disclosed that beneficiaries of the programme in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would have ready market for their products. The special adviser also revealed that the bricks that would be produced during the programme would be used to build 6,000 housing

units in furtherance of a housing project in FCT. According to him, some of the moulding machines would be allocated to Kaduna State for the effective implementation of the recently signed

MoU on IYEEP between his office and the state government. He expressed optimism that the programme would help address the problem of youth unemployment across the country.

In his remarks, the head of the training programme, Mr Richard Hanking-Kent, praised the Federal Government for introducing the scheme. He said that the programme would be in a ‘Train-the-Trainer’ format involving the youth across the country. (NAN)