The Ladi Memorial Foundation (LMF) has said that the empowerment of youths, including school dropouts, with relevant vocational and entrepreneurial skills would serve as solution to the current unemployment and insecurity crises in the country.
The executive director of the foundation, Rosemary Osikoya, stated this at the weekend during the flag-off ceremony of the Young Entrepreneurs Club, Abuja Project, which took place at the Government Junior Secondary School (JSS) premises in Pyakasa, Lugbe, Abuja.
She noted that the foundation had been rendering functional vocational skills to in and out of school youths, as well as adults in urban and rural communities to empower them to become self-employed and live meaningful lives in the society.
She disclosed that the foundation had trained about 600 beneficiaries in catering, baking and confectionaries, male and female garment making, as well as entrepreneurial and literacy programmes since it started in 2017.
Osikoya noted that if schools would run such programmes as a model, communities run it as a club and the government also made a law to run vocational centres, many idle youths roaming the streets would be engaged and would never have time to engage in nefarious activities that account for the current insecurity in the country.
The foundation’s Board of Trustees vice chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Ali and supporter of the initiative, Kashim Ali, an engineer, commended the projects of the foundation, which would not only address the skills gap in the society but curb crimes, such as drugs and prostitution.
