Gov. Sani approves N810m startup grants for 4,050 Kaduna skills graduates

Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has approved N810 million as a financial lifeline for 4,050 graduates of the Kaduna State Institute of Vocational Training and Skills Development.

Under the initiative, each graduate will receive N200,000 to support their transition from vocational training to productive employment and entrepreneurship.

Governor Sani announced the support on Thursday at the maiden graduation ceremony of the institute, held at the Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa Campus in Rigachikun.

He said the funds would be administered through the Kaduna State Enterprise Development Agency, KADENDA, to enable the beneficiaries acquire essential tools and provide initial working capital for their businesses.

The money could also be used for professional registration or transportation costs for graduates seeking employment opportunities, he added.

Mr Sani said the state government was engaging companies and industries to create opportunities for direct employment, apprenticeships, internships, mentorship, subcontracting and other structured engagements for the graduates.

“We are also developing a digital platform to connect graduates with employers and track employment outcomes,” he said.

“Our measure of success will ultimately go beyond enrolment and graduation figures; it will be the number of graduates employed, enterprises created, incomes improved, contracts secured and communities transformed.”

The governor said the graduates, having qualified for the National Skills Qualification Level II, represented a new generation of skilled citizens equipped to create value for themselves, their families, communities and the wider economy.

He said his administration was building an ecosystem that would promote self-reliance among young people and enable women to transform vocational skills into enterprises.

He added that the initiative was also designed to ensure that persons living with disabilities could participate fully in the economy and that artisans could progress from informal subsistence to globally competitive craftsmanship.

According to Sani, the institute operates three campuses: the Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa Campus in Rigachikun, the Abubakar Dangiwa Umar Campus in Soba and the Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Campus in Samaru Kataf.

He said the institute was conceived as an engine of economic transformation aimed at equipping Kaduna residents with skills that were useful locally, competitive nationally and relevant to the global economy.

The governor described the training as deliberately practical, complemented by theory, literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurship and soft skills.

He said the graduates were trained across 14 trade areas, including electrical installation, welding and fabrication, aluminium fabrication, computer hardware repair and maintenance, catering and hospitality, masonry, refrigeration and air conditioning.

Other areas, according to him, include fashion design and garment making, carpentry and joinery, painting and decoration, tiling, plumbing and pipe fitting, solar installation and automotive mechatronics.

Mr Sani said the institute’s partnership with the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, enabled it to deliver training in line with National Occupational Standards and award National Skills Qualifications under the Nigerian Skills Qualifications Framework.

He emphasised that training across the three campuses was tuition-free, with particular attention given to women, persons with disabilities and young people from underserved communities.

The governor said his administration had also established an institutional framework to sustain skills acquisition and development through the Kaduna State Council on Skills, which he chairs.

He said Vice-President Kashim Shettima and the National Council on Skills had recognised Kaduna’s approach and commended the “Kaduna Model” as a template for a grassroots, bottom-up approach to skills acquisition.

Mr Sani also highlighted the performance of the institute’s trainees at national competitions, noting that at the sixth National Construction Artisans Award held in Abuja in February 2026, one of its trainees, Ibrahim Abubakar Jikamshi, emerged first in welding and was named Overall Best Artisan of the Year.

The governor expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for his support for the state government, recalling that the President commissioned the institutes in June 2025.

According to Sani, the commissioning demonstrated Tinubu’s belief in Kaduna’s young people and the state government’s determination to transform their potential into productive power.