PCNI Empowers 400 Youths from Conflict Zones

The Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative (PCNI) yesterday disclosed that it had empowered at least 400 youths from different communities ravaged by Boko Haram, noting that the beneficiaries were trained in entrepreneurship, digital graphics design and repairs of smart phone.

The Vice Chairman of PCNI, Mr. Tijjani Tumsa made the disclosure at the inauguration of the PCNI ICT Resource Centre at the Federal College of Education (FCE) in Yola, the Adamawa capital.

Tumsa, who was represented by the PCNI State Coordinator, Mr. Hamman Bello said the North-East ranked the lowest in ICT across all regions of the country.

He said the resource centres were established “to bridge this glaring gap adding that the objectives was also to improve access to information technology in the North-East.

“The 400 youths, who benefitted from the seven-month programme were drawn across the six states of the restive region. It is to make the people of the region ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency to be self-productive and economically independent

“The programme was designed to inculcate much needed skill in the people of the North-east, especially between 18 and 45 years. During the programme all participants would be trained on a number of different modules.”

He said the participants “will first be trained on entrepreneurship and computer appreciation after which they would be divided into two groups.