The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zureiwa Abudu has disclosed that there is a novel initiative underway to enable people with disability to be eligible to obtain driver’s licenses.
According to the minister, her outfit has collaborated with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to train disabled people to drive.
“The ministry is also collaborating with DVLA; it is a new novelty that the ministry is doing with DVLA, in training persons with disability, testing them, and also teaching them how to drive. They would be trained, and they can also go in for DVLA license, and they can bring in their cars and drive,” she said in a press briefing on Sunday, June 4.
She also emphasised certain initiatives the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection is taking to promote the employment of individuals with disabilities.
Ms Abudu stated that the Ministry has provided Cabinet with an information paper on challenges related to employment for people with disabilities.
She further mentioned that her outfit has produced a list of disabled people with marketable abilities to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations.
“The Ministry too has compiled a data; 12, 667 children with disabilities, 103 graduates with disabilities from the Tertiary Institutions, and 30 graduates from the tertiary institutions who have employable skills.”
The Minister assured her outfit was in discussions with the Ministers of Employment and Labour Relations, as well as the Minister of Education about how best to employ the people on the list.