The Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC), is to train and empower a total of 60,000 skilled and unskilled youths in Kwara state within the next five years.
The commission is to similarly provide 250 housing units to those displaced by flood from riverine communities.
The proposals were contained in HYPPADEC’s Medium Term Strategic Plan (HMTSP) 2022- 2027, presented at its stakeholder’s forum held in Ilorin, the state capital.
HYPPADEC’s consultant, Sam Juwl, while presenting the plan, said that “60,000 youths will be trained within the next 5 years to take them out of poverty”.
He said while non-graduates would be trained in vocations such as tailoring and painting amongst others, graduates, on the other hand, will be trained in advanced skills including ICT, installation of circuit camera television (CCTV), and solar panel installations amongst others.
HYPPADEC’s Managing Director, Abubakar Yelwa announced that the commission has gotten the approval of its governing board to provide 250 houses to people displaced by flood from riverine communities.
He, however, decried the lack of compliance by generating companies in all six HYPPADEC states in the payment of their dues to the commission.
“If not for the grace and supports of the governors of the six HYPPADEC states, HYYPADEC offices would have closed by now because what is due to HYPADEC from generating companies had never been paid to HYPPADEC to date.
“In fact, some of them are even arguing and trying to see that there is no justification in paying what is due to be paid to support these communities.
Some of them are arguing that they should be allowed to work it out on their own which should not be the case”, he lamented.
The Chairman Governing Council of HYPPADEC, Barrister Joseph Ityav, said the essence of the meeting was to have stakeholders impute into the proposed plan with a view to ensuring that its implementation was carried out according to their communities’ needs assessments.
Kwara state governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Mamman Shaaba Jibril, called for the dredging of River Niger to put an end to the recurring flood wrecking havoc in riverine communities.
Olusola Akintonde
