774,000 jobs: Women in Zamfara to clean mosques, hospitals

By ATTAHIRU AHMED, Gusau

The Federal Government’s Presidential Committee for 774,000 jobs extended special works programme has been inaugurated in Zamfara State, just as women captured in the programme are to clean hospitals and mosques in the state.

This is according to the committee’s chairman in the state.

Speaking during the formal inauguration ceremony held at Sardauna Memorial Stadium in Gusau, the state capital, the Zamfara State acting governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau appreciated the Federal Government’s gesture in the state.

He stressed that the aim of the programme is to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country. Mahdi Aliyu further explained that the state government under Governor Bello Matawalle, has introduced N-sip to the teeming youth and the vulnerable across the state with a monthly pay of N10,000 to each beneficiary.

Speaking in an interview shortly after the formal inauguration, the state chairman, selection committee, Ahmad Garba Yandi, said the programme had already been kicked off nationwide by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

He maintained that the beneficiaries comprising men and women were selected from the 14 local government areas of the state, adding that “Women would be assigned to clean mosques and hospitals as part of extended work programme”.

According to him, the implementation of the programme was aimed at improving the socio-economic situation of the state and country in general and “this is a welcome development,” he said. In his remarks, the state coordinator, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Abdullahi Yakubu, urged the beneficiaries to be actively engaged in their given assignments.

Abdullahi Yakubu further warned that “laziness and absence from work would not be condoned. Whoever is found absent from their schedule will be removed from the programme.”

 (Sunday Tribune)