The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has presented a new charter of empowerment for 100,000 youths across the 31 local councils of Akwa Ibom State, beginning in October 2024.

Eno presented the plan at a youth appreciation and engagement rally at the Uyo Township Stadium to express his administration’s gratitude to the youths for their non-participation in the recent #Endbadgovernance protest.

He directed the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development and the office of the Senior Special Assistant on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to create a database for youth employment, through which names, based on required qualifications, will be harvested for employment both by the State government, investors, and other organisations operating in the state.

The governor explained that 60,000 youths (5,000 monthly) will be selected from the database for a one-off business support scheme of N50,000 each within 12 months.

In addition, Eno stated that 10,000 youths will be supported through the ARISE Entrepreneurial Scheme, an empowerment initiative for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) based on needs assessment.

Similarly, he announced that 3,000 youths be employed (100 per local council, excluding Uyo Council) through the Ibom Community Watch to provide crowd control and complementary intelligence gathering at the grassroots, in addition to the 550 youths already engaged from Uyo.

According to him, other aspects of the scheme include paid training at the DAKKADA Skills Acquisition Center (DASAC) for 1,000 participants across 31 councils, with a monthly transport allowance of ₦20,000 per person throughout the training duration.

Increased bursary for students in public tertiary institutions from N10,000 to N20,000 for undergraduates and from N10,000 to N30,000 for professional students (Law, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture) for 20,000 students in the 2024/2025 academic session.