Adamawa Government on Monday says it will distribute economic strengthening kits to 70 youths and women trained under the Community Development Service (CDS) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The graduates were trained under a skill acquisition programme initiated by a Corps member, Miss Sulfat Aliu, in the Yola-North Local Government Area of the state.

Hajiya Aishatu Bello, the Head, of Adamawa Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation Agency (PAWECA), stated this in an interview in Yola.

Bello said the youths were exposed to tailoring, leatherwork and agro-allied processing during the training exercise.

She said that the exercise was designed to impart relevant skills to the youths to enable them to become self-reliant.

According to her, the agency will distribute starter packs to the graduates to enable them to set up their businesses and engage in productive activities.

“The criteria are for the graduates within the age bracket of 17 to 25 to qualify based on their trade, they will be given support to start up their businesses,” she said.

The gesture, she said, would help reduce poverty, create wealth as well as contribute to the social and economic development of the state.

Bello urged wealthy individuals to contribute to the skills development programme as the government alone cannot do it all.

“As an agency of government responsible for poverty reduction, job and wealth creation, it is desirable for individuals, groups or organisations to key into the programme.

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“The agency is ready to collaborate with development partners towards actualising its mandate as the availability of government finances cannot take care of everyone.

“It is a collective responsibility, we need stakeholders to come in for us to have peaceful coexistence and sustainable development,’’ she said.