The Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr Gold Adedayo, has pledged the support of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s administration for efforts at ensuring the successful conduct of the forthcoming enumeration and census.
He gave the assurance in his office in Ado Ekiti during an advocacy visit by officials of the National Population Commission led by the Federal Commissioner representing Ekiti State, Mr Ayodeji Ajayi.
He noted that the exercise would help in equitable resource allocation as the objective was to determine the population size, establishment of demographic data, employment status and standard of living.
The Commissioner, who stated that the present government would not leave any stone unturned in the affairs of youth, said the ministry had engaged different youth organizations, including their umbrella body, the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), on ways to bring them on board in the affairs of the government.
He also revealed areas of seeking international collaboration to help the development of youth towards bringing out the potential embedded in them to be positively engaged and useful to themselves as well as make them employers of labour.
Adedayo, who noted that one of the pillars of the Biodun Oyebanji government is youth development, said the government would require the youth in policy making.
Earlier, the Federal Commissioner of NPC, Mr Deji Ajayi, appreciated the governor for appointing the commissioner to take charge of youth development in the state.
He said that the purpose of the meeting is to bring youth on board in the nation’s affairs, stressing that youths form a larger percentage of the Nigerian population.
He said youth occupied about 80 per cent of youth for the census, adding that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training was also given to enhance their
productivity.
He highlighted some of the benefits of the census as upgrading the capacity of the workers, statistics for planning, security, and working with necessary ministries to attain the desired purpose.
