Cross River Gov. Otu Approves N1.5bn for Youth Skill Acquisition, Start-Up Empowerment Programme

Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, has approved the release of N1.499 billion for the implementation of the Cross River Youth Skill Acquisition and Start-up Empowerment Programme, a landmark initiative designed to equip 2,620 young people across the state with vocational, technical and digital skills, alongside business start-up equipment to help them launch their own enterprises.

The approval was granted during a meeting of the State Executive Council, as part of the administration's broader commitment to accelerating youth employment, enterprise development and inclusive economic growth across Cross River State. The programme forms the latest in a series of youth-focused interventions the Otu administration has rolled out over the course of 2026, reflecting a sustained policy emphasis on skills acquisition and entrepreneurship as tools for addressing youth unemployment in the state.

Speaking shortly after the Executive Council approval, Governor Otu described the initiative as a strategic investment in the future of Cross River State, stressing that the programme goes beyond conventional skills training to actively creating a new generation of entrepreneurs and wealth creators. He said the administration remains determined to build a self-reliant and industrious youth population.

Otu further explained that the initiative is expected to significantly reduce youth unemployment, restiveness and social vulnerability within the state, while simultaneously strengthening Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as critical drivers of economic expansion. He framed youth empowerment as central to the state's broader security and development objectives, arguing that empowering young people economically directly supports peace and stability at the community level, since young people equipped with viable livelihoods are less likely to be drawn into social vices or restiveness driven by economic hardship.

The governor reaffirmed that youth development remains a central pillar of his administration's People First agenda, adding that the state government would continue investing in programmes designed to expand opportunities for employment, innovation and wealth creation among Cross River's young population. He described the state's greatest resource as lying not beneath the ground, but in the talent, creativity and resilience of its people — an emphasis that has recurred throughout several of the administration's youth-focused announcements this year.

The new N1.499 billion programme adds to a growing list of youth empowerment initiatives launched by the Otu administration in recent months. Earlier this year, the governor unveiled plans to empower 4,500 young people across the state's 18 local government areas through the Cross River State Youth Development Summit and Empowerment programme. The state has also flagged off registration for the Federal Government's Youth Employment, Intervention and De-Radicalisation Programme (YEIDEP) in Cross River, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth Development and several commercial banks operating as financial partners in that scheme. Separately, the state has rolled out its own Vocational Skills Entrepreneurship Programme (VOSEP) through the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Content, aimed at providing residents with practical vocational training combined with entrepreneurship and business management education.

Taken together, these overlapping initiatives point to a deliberate strategy by the Cross River State Government to tackle youth unemployment from multiple angles simultaneously — combining direct funding for skills acquisition and start-up capital, federal collaboration through programmes like YEIDEP, and sector-specific interventions such as VOSEP and the earlier Youth Development Summit. The scale of interventions rolled out within a single calendar year suggests youth empowerment has become one of the defining policy priorities of the Otu administration to date.

With the latest approval bringing direct funding of nearly N1.5 billion to a single youth empowerment programme, attention will now turn to how effectively the Cross River Youth Skill Acquisition and Start-up Empowerment Programme is implemented, and whether the promised vocational, technical and digital skills training, alongside start-up equipment support, translates into measurable outcomes for the 2,620 targeted beneficiaries across the state's local government areas.