FCTA Empowers 19,850 Indigent Youths

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through the Social Development Secretariat said it has empowered over 19, 850 indigent youths in the territory.

The mandate secretary of the FCT Social Development Secretariat, Hadiza Kabir who disclosed this during the celebration of her one year in office, yesterday said the secretariat in the last 12 months, organised a moral rebranding programme in which youths from across the six area councils of the FCT benefited.

Kabir stated that over 300 youths were trained and empowered in fish farming and aquaculture within the period under review.

The mandate secretary, also revealed that over 500 youths were trained in ‘Technopreneurship’ where young persons in the territory are trained to champion small business establishments in technology-based fields like solar and computer combined with leadership training.

According to her, the secretariat sponsored 600 youths to participate in the 2022 Zuma Film Festival with another set of 450 youths trained in Agro-based business in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

“About 13,100 youths were trained in leather works, satellite installation, welding, and metal fabrication and ICT; while another 5,500 youths were empowered and given starter packs to jump-start their trained vocations,” she said.

She also listed other successes recorded in the last year including the evacuation of over 12,500 beggars from the streets of Abuja while providing feeding, psycho-social counseling, and repatriation to their respective states of origin to decongest the increasing number of shanties that sprout across the Capital City Centre (CCC).

“The Secretariat had successfully evacuated 4,519 mentally retarded persons with drugs-related cases out of which 502 have successfully been treated and reunited with their loved ones.

“Medical Social Welfare can now be accessed in 15 FCTA Hospitals as against the previous 10 hospitals that offer such assistance due to the influx of people into the Capital City.

“273 victims of drug misused persons (drug addicts) were rehabilitated through psychosocial therapy, while 81 are currently undergoing rehabilitation at the FCT Vocational center, Bwari,” she said.