The Khamzid Charity Foundation has unveiled the training and empowerment of 100,000 women and youths across Nigeria through vocational and skills acquisition programmes aimed at reducing poverty, promoting entrepreneurship and fostering self-reliance.

The initiative, to be implemented under the Tijjaniyya Youth Economic Development Initiative (TYEDI), was announced during the inauguration of state officials and 20 local government coordinators of the programme in Bauchi.

Chairman of the Foundation, Khalil Ibrahim Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, described the initiative as a long-overdue effort to unlock the economic potential of a community renowned for its spiritual heritage. He disclosed that 20,000 beneficiaries would be drawn from Bauchi State in the first phase of the programme.

“We are a people rich in faith, discipline and numbers, yet for too long we have been left behind in worldly affairs, not because we lack ability, but because we had not looked beyond, nor emphasised the balance between this life and the next,” he said.

According to him, TYEDI was established to bridge that gap by combining spiritual values with practical skills and economic empowerment.

“Our fathers gave us knowledge, character and unity. It falls to us to add to that inheritance the means of livelihood, so that our young people are strong in this life as they are rich in the next. A believer whose hand is productive is a believer whose faith is shielded from need,” he added.

He urged members of the community to embrace the initiative as a shared responsibility rather than an act of charity, encouraging beneficiaries to extend opportunities to others.

Programme Coordinator of the Foundation, Muhammad Abubakar Dahir, said TYEDI aims to equip 100,000 young people with market-ready skills while building a network of one million skilled, self-reliant and civically engaged members across the country.

“We train a young person, we help them start, we connect them to a network of their peers, and we stay with them until they are established. When you empower one, you touch the ten who stand behind them. That is how a community of one million is not a slogan, but an arithmetic,” Dahir said.

He explained that participants would receive training in 22 market-relevant skills covering agriculture and livestock production, computer operations, tailoring, shoe and bag making, printing, creative and digital trades, vocational and technical services, home production, finance and trade.

According to him, beneficiaries will also receive start-up kits, business support tools, financial grants and continuous mentorship to enable them establish sustainable businesses.

Dahir said all participants would undergo a comprehensive verification process, with records captured down to ward and polling unit levels to ensure transparency and that only genuine beneficiaries benefit from the programme.

He noted that Bauchi State was selected as the pilot location because it is the home of the Tijjaniyya community founded by Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi and has the strongest grassroots structures.

“What we prove in Bauchi becomes the model every other state will follow,” he said, adding that the programme would subsequently expand across the North-East, North-West and North-Central geopolitical zones.

Addressing the newly inaugurated coordinators, Dahir described them as the backbone of the initiative. “Each of you now carries the trust of thousands. Through you this promise reaches the wards, the villages and the homes. Guard that trust with your integrity, and history will record that this movement began in your hands,” he said.