The Federal Government has fumed and ordered all illegal miners across the country to immediately vacate sites or will be seriously dealt with.
The stern warning was given by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, during the graduation ceremony and presentation of starter-packs to 30 graduating trainees under Batch 3 of the Ministry’s Programme on ‘Gemstone and Jewellery Master Training and Empowerment’ under the Mineral Support for Economic Diversification, MinDiver, a World Bank assisted project.
Alake said the skill acquisition programme is part of the ‘Renewed Hope’agenda of President Bola Tinubu, which Tinubu during his presidential campaign promised to create jobs massively for the youth, and this graduation is a fulfilment to it.
He also commended MinDiver for the efforts made so far to add value to the lives of Nigerians via the intensive training which was done by dedicated, experienced and committed experts for the days and weeks spent to transfer the knowledge and skills into young Nigerians who also will in turn train other Nigerians and create jobs for them in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, in order to contribute their quota to the growth and development of the economy.
He also acknowledged that the programme had earlier produced 40 Master Jewellers who were trained between 2021 and 2022, and today (Thursday) additional 30 jewellers are graduating.
He said the pioneer set of 70 Master Jewellers will be a faculty that would train would-be jewellers in the 774 local governments of Nigeria.
However, the Minister called on state governments to partner with the Ministry by sponsoring at least 10 youths per local government for training to acquire this highly profitable skills.
he also assured them that the faculty will be mobilised to any state that is ready to empower their youths to impart their technical knowledge and demonstrate the procedures for using solid minerals to embelish the beauty of our people.
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