Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is set to commence the Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations, YESSO-2.0 programme.
This was disclosed by the National programme Manager of YESSO-2.0, Mr Richard Romanus, in a document made available to Ikengaonline in Enugu.
It would be recalled that YESSO is a World Bank Assisted programme, which was first introduced in the country in 2013 under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
It was later remodeled during the immediate past administration of President Muhammad Buhari and domiciled in the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
YESSO was designed to uplift the poor and the vulnerable, particularly the youth population and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
While unveiling the outline of the YESSO-2.0 programme, Romanus said that the programme with the theme “bridging the gap and renewing the hope,” had 10 areas of interest.
According to him, these included Agriculture, Education, Health, Social Infrastructure, climate change, job creation amongst others.
On agriculture, he said YESSO would offer micro-credit loans, grants, and incentives for agricultural purposes to individuals in IDP camps wishing to go into such ventures.
“YESSO will provide unemployed youths and women with agricultural inputs, training and tools to engage in farming; so, as to improve food security and income,” he said.
He also said that YESSO would partner with relevant NGOs to provide adequate healthcare, awareness, sensitisation and vaccination to IDP communities and rural dwellers.
Romanus also said that YESSO shall embark on education support programme through the distribution of materials for teaching and learning in IDP camps.
“YESSO-2.0 shall carryout Community-based Infrastructure maintenance and interventions in roads, bridges, markets, boreholes etc,” he said.
Romanus enumerated other programmes to include entrepreneurship, entertainment, talent discovery/sponsorship, job creation, skills acquisition and climate change.
On job creation, he said YESSO would partner with both the public and private sectors to create jobs and assist in job placements and training for unemployed youths in the country.
The manager further stated that the programme would support upcoming artists in the country and also try to end conflicts among them.
“YESSO-2.0 will play crucial role in empowering youths in the digital market, content creation and marketing sectors.
“These are some of the things YESSO-2.0 plan to achieve in line with the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda” of the President, ” Romanus said.
