An empowerment group, Old Panteka Development Association, says it has trained no fewer than 600,000 youth in Kaduna State on various trades since its establishment in 1970.
The Chairman of the association, Alhaji Suleiman Shehu, stated this during an advocacy on voter education convened by Kaduna Progressives Group, on Saturday in Kaduna.
Shehu said the youth were trained on carpentry, welding, painting, roofing, plumbing, electrical work and other trades.
According to him, the Panteka market is an industry in itself with 38 sections, each engaged in different trades.
“We produce so many things that people buy from abroad, we train and retrain the youths.
“Our market has been supporting government programmes and we have members across Kaduna state running businesses and earning a living.
“In panteka we have graduates from all over the state and those still going to school.
“We have collaborated with Kaduna Polytechnic on skills acquisition.
“Currently, government is in the process of intevening through SMEDAN to give us some machines that will assist us,” he added.
He also said that the Chairman of Kaduna South Local Government, Alhaji Kabiru Jarimi, had allocated a piece of land to the association to enhance its empowerment activities.
“Prof Idris Bugaje, the then Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic selected 20 people from panteka market for quality assurance training which was concluded and they have started monitoring of our products.
“Today from panteka youth can be certified on various trades because of our collaboration with Kaduna polytechnic.
“Our hope is that in future, we will build hostels to accommodate trainees and students on internship, attending our skills acquisition programmes,” Shehu said.
On voters registration, the Chairman said that the association has been mobilising its members to obtain the permanent voters card.
He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) to set up voters registration unit to register eligible voters working in the market.
Malam Murtala Usman, the association’s Welfare Officers, said they had also began the Almajiri skills acquisition training, to empower the almajiri school pupils with skills to be self-reliant.
He added that Panteka market is also a research centre on small and medium scale enterprises.
The Chairman, Kaduna progressive group, Dr Bashir Ibrahim, said that the market, which has more than 4, 000 shops and 50,000 registered members, contributes greatly to the economic development of Kaduna state.
“Our coming today is to seek for your support on creating awareness on voters registration and general support in all our activities,” Ibrahim added.
