Mary Nnah
In honour of the peaceful End SARS protests, which took place exactly one year ago at the Lekki tollgate on October 20th 2020, against police brutality in Nigeria, a group of Nigerian women leaders, Alliance of Business and Professional Women (ABPW), is launching its Youth Connect Initiative, which will equip youths from underprivileged communities with skills to provide gainful employment.
Youth Connect Initiative, a transformational initiative, birthed on the first anniversary of an epochal event in the history of Nigeria, aims at supporting the Nigerian youths to create the Nigeria we all desire.
According to the Chairman of the APBW Governance Board, Mrs. Toyin Sanni, the Youth Connect Initiative is a most fitting way to turn a most painful memory into something good for the youths who, she said, have for decades been ignored, marginalised, oppressed and economically excluded.
The initiative, she added, will be providing employability solutions to aid entrepreneurship and also provide employment opportunities, working with institutional partners.
“Our ultimate goal is to establish end to end job creation, creating a cadre of skilled and engaged youth with a strong sense of civic responsibilities”, Sanni noted.
The project is designed to prepare unemployed young men and women from disadvantaged communities for the job market with an emphasis on technology, connecting them to job opportunities whilst inspiring them to undertake their civic responsibilities.
The project, which will commence in Lagos in January 2022 and progress to other states, will provide amongst others employability skills, entrepreneurship, vocational and personal development.
Targeted at participants in the 18-30 age bracket, who must fulfill entry criteria including evidence of belonging to a Community-based organisation and provide references from religious organisations they belong to and so on or a past employer, or educational establishment.
