by crossriverwatch admin
The Cross River Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Youth Empowerment and Social Support Organization, to empower 10,000 youths in the state.
The Head, Department of International Donor Support in the state, Mr Roy Ndoma-Egba, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Sunday.
Ndoma-Egba, who is also the Special Adviser to Gov. Liyel Imoke on Foreign Aid, said that the gesture was to take the unemployed out of the streets.
He said that the department was collaborating with relevant government agencies to have a single registration system to capture the data of all potential job-seekers in the state.
“We will have a central data system where we can categorize each applicant on the basis of qualification, need and catchments.
“Some will be placed under the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme of the State Government and others will be provided with paid employment.
“We are trying to ensure that every unemployed Cross Riverian fits into the program.We are targeting about 10,000 youths.’’
The special adviser said that the program would involve all unemployed youths in rural and urban areas of the state.
He assured that the selection process for the beneficiaries would be transparent and that the distribution would also be equitable.
Ndoma-Egba said that the state was working hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets in 2015.
He said that 16 out of the 18 Local Government Areas in the state had been provided with portable water through the Sector Wide Approach programme, reports News Agency of Nigeria..
“We can confidently say that before the end of this year all the 18 Local Government Councils will be linked with the portable water supply project.
“This will reduce water borne diseases across the state to the barest minimum,” Ndoma-Egba added.
According to him, some of the challenges facing the achievement of the MDGs in the state are a lack of prompt payment of counterpart funds as well as staff capacity and skills.
The special adviser said, however, that the government had been trying to address the problems.
“The truth of the matter is that Cross River will achieve some of the MDGs if not all. We will achieve the targets in education, water, health and gender,” he said.