The Federal Government of Nigeria, KAS Prints and Canon are into joint partnership on the training and empowerment of Nigerian youths in the areas of digital graphic designs and printing.

The partnership will equally favour printing entrepreneurs, graphic artists and digital photographers.

The partnership was officially unveiled at the weekend in Lagos during the launch of the company calls Revolutionary Canon 10,000VP Digital Print Equipment and KP2 Partnership programme for printers, graphic artists, print entrepreneurs, publishers and digital photographers at the Eko Hotels and Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Addressing the audience during the launch, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of KAS Prints, Prince Ademola Kasumu, who described the Canon 10,000 VP digital print equipment as the first all over the world, disclosed that the KP2 programme was designed by KAS Print to empower no fewer than 1,000 youths across the nation.

He explained that the machine was so wonderful and flexible that it handles all kinds of media, stressing that the beautiful thing about the machine is that, “irrespective of the media size, the production capacity never reduces. No matter the weight and texture, you always have maximum productivity at every time.”

Describing how the programme works, Kasumu explained that KAS print will create a platform for all youths that are skilled in digital designs, print and photography, adding that they will equip and design hubs across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, equip each of the hubs in each zone with no fewer than 100 computers with the necessary software.

“If you are a member of KP2, you are going to have access to this design hub 24/7. We are not asking you for a dime. It is part of the program,” he assured.

Kasumu, who explained that they are partnering with the Federal Government of Nigeria in conjunction with Canon through the Minister of State for Labour and Employing under one of his parastatals, the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) said: “We are going to have this hub all over the country and equip it. Then we allow youths to become their own boss. They will design their own jobs. KAS print will be giving you the first proof and second proof which you will take to your client and when the client approves it, as a member of KP2, you will be given about 50% of the prevailing market price for the printing of this programme or for whatever job you bring in there.”

He said KP2 is a sophisticated programme which is going to help alleviate the problem of joblessness in Nigeria and going to help the country in the development of youths.

“I can assure you on the take-off of the KP2 that we have instant employment for about 1,000 youths across the nation.

“Already the NDE has got its data base, which they are going to supply and those that are selected will go through this programme and when we brush them up, they will be hooked into the KP2 programme and they will become their own bosses at no cost.

“They do not need any amount of money to buy any equipment, KAS is going to stand there as a back bone digitally and make sure they provide the service to them. And when they get to bigger clients and they ask; who are you? Why should we patronise you? You look too small to handle this job? You tell them that KAS is behind you.

“With the current fire power of KAS, we remain one of the largest in Africa, Asia, India and Europe. When it comes to digital printing, there is no volume of job KAS cannot handle. With the acquisition of this machine, we have the capability to print 36 million A4 branch wide from all our establishments and I don’t think there is anywhere in the world you have such capabilities.

“My message to the youths is that they should engage themselves in skills acquisition. They don’t need to have the money to buy all these machines, We are telling you that KAS will be there for you from A-Z, We will train you, engage you, advertise you to people and tell them that when you see a KP2 member, patronise the person. We assure you of quality and timely delivery using revolutionary c10, 000 cannon,” he stated.

In his keynote address, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canon in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Yuichi Ishizuka, said they are honoured to have the chance to work together with KAS and Nigerian government, not only for business reasons but for making such a big contribution to digital printing in this continent.

In his remark, Federal Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN) said the Federal Government viewed the partnership as an avenue by which many of Nigerian youths can acquire the skill of digital technology and printing to become self employed.

He said the Federal Government is of the view that the only way it can address the problem of employment is to make the youths acquire skills by which they can be on their own, establish macro, small and medium scale enterprises in they can employ a few more hands with them and as a result of that, engage most of the youths that are unemployed.

According to him, “Government cannot provide employment for everybody and as such we are willing to partner with anybody, not only KAS that comes up with such an arrangement like KP2 where they are willing to train our youths to acquire very delicate skills, so they can be self employed.

“The preliminary projection we have with Kas is that with this new acquisition that they have, they are going to set them up in six Geo political zones for starters, they can even go beyond that later, but when they start them up, they want to train our youths free of charge. And so we have a preliminary projection of about a thousand youths, where they will absorb them in their centers, train them at no cost to the federal government, so you can see it’s a good deal and that is why I am here.

“It is subject to more details, but this is the overall detail we are looking at, they train them at no cost to the federal government and then they will tap into the data base of the directory of unemployment which supervises employment in our ministry.

“We have a database of youths, you are waiting, anxiously to acquire this skill, we will give them access to this database of the youths and they will train them.

“It also goes beyond training them; they will now have access to some data by using the equipment provided by KAS to bring in their jobs, acquire jobs and to also earn some kind of living by having access to these machines.

“We think it is good we support this initiative and by this call on others too, who have initiatives in other fields, be it Agriculture, etc, they should come forward and if it’s good enough we would support them to absolve these youths.”

•PHOTO: L-R: President/CEO, Tenaui Africa Limited, Mr. Yasser EL-Farra; President/CEO, Canon Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Mr. Yuichi lshiz; Minister for State, Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo; and MD/CEO, KAS Prints, Mr. Ademola Kasumu at the unveiling of the Revolutionary Canon 10000VP Digital Print Equipment by KAS Prints in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Lagos, on Friday, 11/10/2019.

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