A non-governmental organisation ( NGO ) called Youth Development and Actualization Outreach alias Naija Yao has said that it is now set to mobilise and empower 36,000 Nigerian youths in the 36 states through the project it tagged “Block Making and Construction” describing it as a tool for youth empowerment and mass housing.

Naija Yao President and facilitator, Mr Ifeanyi Williams Okeke, who made this known in Abia State at the weekend, said that the skill acquisition project is geared towards intensive training of youths on the manufacturing of building blocks and paving stones among others, through the use of special designed foreign block making machine known as Egg Laying Machine.

He told journalists that Naija Yao, which was fully incorporated in 2014, was born out of his passion to see a truly transformed Nigeria “which can only be made possible through the instrumentality of the youth who are the only future of our nation as investment in youth is a rewarding investment.”

Mr Okeke said that the project, as a tool for youth empowerment and mass housing and a sustainable solution to the creation of jobs for the youths, skills acquisition and mass housing, will have a Youth Secretariat in each of the six zones of the country. Each secretariat, he said, will also act as a Vocational Learning Center where workers will be taught basic construction skills like brick-making, plumbing, roofing, tilling, etc, by Site Engineers, Foremen, Project Managers and Skilled Artisans.

On the role the states in the zones in which Naija Yao will be domiciled will play, he said: “We are not soliciting financial support from them but we expect them to direct their line ministers to ensure that the right youths are engaged for the four months training including government standing as sureties for the Naija Yao training graduates with respect to their securing grants and soft loans that will enable them to establish on their own according to the prescribed terms and conditions.”

He also said that state governments will also provide land of up to 30 to 50 hectares for the project, stressing that where state governments play their expected roles and support and cooperate in his project, there will be reduction of youth unemployment and their related crimes.

Okeke applauded Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State for establishing the Education For Employment project, saying that because the state was also richly endowed with expanse of land and suitable raw materials like sand for the brick/block making, makes the state very suitable and viable for the Naija Yao project.

•Photo shows Naija Yao President, Ifeanyi Williams Okeke.