The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has said the Coalition Alliance Against COVID-19 will rehabilitate all the police stations that were damaged in the country as a result of wanton destruction and lootings that followed the recent #EndSARS protests.
Emefiele spoke during a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday at the office of the CBN.
He also disclosed that CACOVID had so far spent N43.27bn on the acquisition of medical equipment and supplies, and food palliatives for the vulnerable, among others.
The CBN governor said the alliance planned to spend N150bn on youth empowerment.
He said, “CACOVID has committed to fully rehabilitate all 44 damaged and destroyed police stations nationwide in a bid to restore provision of security in affected locations.
“To further strengthen the security apparatus in the country, CACOVID has committed to provide over N100bn to procure equipment and gadgets for the Nigerian Police Force over the next two years; as our contribution to fully modernise the Nigerian Police.”
He said its preliminary analysis indicated that unemployment, particularly among the youth, was a critical factor behind the unrest.
As a result, he said, CACOVID had committed to create a high impact youth development programme that would provide technical and vocational education to over four million Nigerian youths over the next five years.
“Over N150bn is expected to be deployed towards the set up and implementation of the youth development programme, which will be available at select training centers across the country,” he said.
Emefiele said selected students on conclusion of the programme would be certified by the appropriate standards board and would be eligible to receive loans to support their entrepreneurial pursuits.
So far, he said, over N25bn would be domiciled in a fund to support these entrepreneurial pursuits, which would also include acquisition of related equipment to conduct business activities.
According to him, these efforts represent some of the essential steps that were important in rebuilding trust and preventing future unrest within the communities.
– Punch