The Katsina State Government has invested over ₦4.7 billion in upgrading the Katsina Youth Craft Village (KYCV) into a modern skills acquisition centre, its coordinator, Engr. Kabir Abdullahi Kofar Soro, has said.
Kofar Soro disclosed this during the flag-off of the Federal Ministry of Education’s TVET Initiative Programme under the World Bank-supported IDEAS Project in Katsina, where federal officials also launched a monitoring and evaluation exercise and commended the state’s commitment to technical education.
According to him, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda approved over ₦700 million for the comprehensive renovation of the centre and more than ₦4 billion for the procurement of modern tools, equipment and industrial machinery.
He said the investments were aimed at transforming KYCV into a world-class institution capable of preparing young people for both local and global labour markets.
The coordinator further revealed that the state government had merged the Centre for Skills Development (COSDEC) with KYCV to bring all skills training specialists in the state under one structure. He explained that the move was designed to strengthen coordination, eliminate duplication and enhance service delivery.
The integration, he added, has consolidated Quality Assurance and Accreditation systems, including internal and external quality assurance mechanisms, to ensure that training programmes meet national standards and align with global best practices.
Kofar Soro also disclosed that KYCV recently secured a ₦60 million training grant from the Federal Ministry of Education to train 200 youths in Computer Hardware Maintenance and GSM Repair under the IDEAS–TVET initiative.
He said the centre qualified for the award after scoring 86.25 per cent in a technical evaluation conducted under the IDEAS Project. Each of the 200 beneficiaries, he noted, will receive ₦300,000 worth of free training covering foundation courses, National Skills Qualification (NSQ) certification and job placement support.
He described the state government’s financial commitment to youth development as unprecedented and expressed optimism that the TVET initiative would further expand access to high-quality technical education in Katsina.
The event was attended by the Commissioner for Higher, Vocational and Technical Education, Hon. Adnan Nahabu; Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Development Management Board, Mustapha Shehu; Executive Director of Development Partners at KTSDMB, Rukayya Hamza Usman; Senior Special Assistant on Media and Strategy, Mustapha S. Ingawa; representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education and the IDEAS Project team, as well as traditional rulers and other stakeholders in technical education.
