North East Development Commission (NEDC) in collaboration with the Borno State government has begun the training of 215 persons on solar power installation, waste management and recycling in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
At a five-day training workshop held yesterday at the Indimi International Conference Centre University of Maiduguri, the coordinator, Dr Zainab Mohammed, said while 100 participants would undergo training on waste management, 75 persons would be trained on recycling of waste.
She said the essence of the training is to make the people self-reliant and to help them pick up their lives having been battered by the decades of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.
Also, one of the facilitators, Halima Umar Abdulsalam, said the objective of the training is to provide trainees with various information and knowledge on how to create awareness and make consumers believe in recycled products by showcasing the beauty, importance and need to recycle waste.
She added that the workshop would help the trainees to enhance recyclables into more profitable products with low-cost products, noting that participants at the end of the workshop are expected to have an in-depth knowledge about recycling products; how to utilise, use, reuse and recycle their products.
On renewable energy, Dr Mohammed Bukar, said with trends of attacks on electricity installations in Borno State, training the youths on renewable energy and solar power installation would end the menace of frequent power failure resulting from the activities of the Boko Haram terrorists.
“The training of our youths on solar power installation would tackle the menace of Boko Haram terrorists destroying electricity power lines which have been subjecting most areas to darkness. About 40 youths comprising 20 from Borno and 20 from Yobe states are undergoing the training, ” he said.
He said at the end of the training, participants would be given starter-packs such as solar batteries, inverters among others.
In his remarks, the state’s coordinator of the NEDC, Engr Umaru Mohammed Watsada, who represented the managing director of the commission, Mohammed Alkali, said the workshop is ongoing simultaneously in the six states of the North-East, and urged participants to make use of the opportunity for the benefit of mankind.
