By Bassey Inyang / Calabar
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has stated that it would soon establish an Information Communication Technology in Calabar, Cross River State to train youths and give them various entrepreneurial skills.
Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, disclosed this at the Cross River State office when a contingent of the Micro-finance and Enterprise Development Agency, led by its Managing Director, Mr. Ignatius Atsu, visited him.
Henshaw said NDDC would partner MEDA to ensure that youths who would be trained in the ICT centre would be certified by Microsoft.
Henshaw, who said this in response to the request sought by the Atsu , said the establishment of the ICT centre for the training of youths reduces unemployment drastically.
“We have held discussions and trying to see how we can partner with various agencies, including MEDA, in the area of ICT. We would see how we create a standard computer centre that will be well equipped.
“It will be set up and used for basic computer training and when they finish the training, we will ensure that certification is done by Microsoft,” Henshaw said.
Asu had disclosed that the agency has the mandate to train 2, 000 youths annually for the next five years.
Atsu said through another partnership initiative with Bank of Industry, the agency currently has a N500 million deposit which is available for business concerns in agriculture processing and manufacturing sector.
“The N500 million is available to all businesses that are linked with processing and manufacturing. So, if you are processing any agricultural produce like rice, maize, cassava or millet, the fund is available with single digit interest rate,” Atsu said.
In his remarks, the NDDC Commissioner in Cross River, Mr. Paul Adah, said efforts are being made towards reducing the high rate of unemployment among the youths in the Niger Delta region.