The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) said it has engaged 14,000 youths on its ongoing nationwide project, Right of Way Maintenance Intervention Programme (ROW MIP).
In a statement, FERMA’s spokesperson, Mrs. Maryam M. Sanusi, said the project was an initiative that was borne out of the need to tackle some of the black/bad spots on the nation’s highways that had afforded hoodlums to operate and which caused several road mishaps.
ROW MIP, being in its first phase, the agency said a maximum of 14,000 youths living around the road corridors identified for the intervention had been engaged.
FERMA said the initiative was in consonance with its mandate and the Federal Government’s drive to gainfully engage the nation’s teeming youths.
The intervention centres on vegetation control, cutting of tree branches along the roads to aid visibility, de-silting of silted/blocked drains and carriageways, as well as carting away of refuse on road shoulders.
FERMA added that the programme had heightened economic activities in and around the areas where work was ongoing, and that the beneficiaries got paid through their bank accounts thereby imbibing banking culture in them.