The National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) has said that insecurity, kidnapping and other social vices experienced in Nigeria will only end if the youth, especially nomads, are gainfully employed.
Addressing participants Monday in Abuja, at the opening ceremony of a four-day workshop on the development of training manuals on various sustainable livelihoods skills and trades for nomadic youth, the executive secretary of NCNE, Professor Bashir H. Usman, said the commission has engaged academicians, consultants, experts, technicians and practitioners from various fields to assist in developing a standard training manual that will be used in capacity development of nomadic youth; to be drawn from pastoralist, migrant farmers and fisher folks communities.
He said: “This is one of the most important gatherings of consultants, academicians, professionals, technicians and practitioners in various fields of entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihood skills for our clientele – nomadic youth to be encouraged, guided, supported and tooled to adopt modern entrepreneurship skills and sustainable livelihoods organised by the commission.
“I am particularly delighted that the commission has at this promising moment taken a leading role in addressing the frightening challenges of nomadism in present day Nigeria through the provision of standard reference material, document, tools information needed to improve the skills of nomadic and make them excel on the job, while using it in improving their chosen need-based and demand driven entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods skills.
“To find and engage in productive employment, youth must acquire a range of skills. Our teeming youth are very eager to imbibe relevant livelihood skills which play a key role in providing food security and income to millions of families and their communities. Similarly, nomadic communities are characterised by young and mobile population, migration flows within and outside their communities are exacerbated by poverty, climate change, illiteracy and insecurity. In an effort to address some of the key challenges in the sector, the commission developed a variety of approaches one of which is the promotion of community-driven and need-based programmes in the area of youths’ skills acquisition and sustainable livelihoods.”
