By Ojo Sola Olusegun
The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program SURE-P of the federal government and that of Kaduna state government yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to engage 2, 000 graduates in the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) to tackle the increasing spate of unemployment in the state.
Speaking during the signing ceremony yesterday in Kaduna, the leader of the federal government team, Barrister Audu Maikor, who spoke on behalf of the Chairman, SURE-P, Gen. Martins Luther Agwai, said “the scheme is basically to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country and by extension in the state.”
He said the rate of the unemployment was largely responsible for the insecurity currently ravaging the country, and assured that with the scheme in place, the unemployed graduates would be positively engaged and kept busy.
The scheme, he said will further reduce social vices in the society, build capacity and empowers young people in the system.
He said: “The federal government will pay each of the 2, 000 graduates from the state the sum of N30,000, while the Kaduna state government has agreed to augment with the sum of ten thousand naira (N10,000) making a sum total of N40, 000 monthly, while the one year internship programme lasts.”
Responding shortly after signing the MoU, the Kaduna state SURE-P chairman and deputy governor, Ambassador Nuhu Audu Bajoga, on behalf of the state government, commended the initiative and described the initiative as “a welcome development.”
He said: “As a government, we were excited when we learnt of the employment generation initiative, we decided to key into the scheme to get people who will work for us while we pay little.”
While reiterating that the state has large number of unemployed graduates, he said no fewer than 80 unemployed graduates would be engaged from each of the 23 local government areas.
He said: “The money to pay the internship graduates scheme for the one year by the Kaduna state SURE-P is already in place and same applies to the federal government’s SURE-P.
“It will be an open system, we encourage graduates from Kaduna state to log onto the federal government’s SURE-P website and apply accordingly by filling the required forms.”
