KOTA KINABALU – Hundreds of youth in Sabah will be able to earn income as delivery riders, courtesy of the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority’s (Sedia) Bizrider300 programme.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said that 300 youth will receive brand-new Modenas Kriss 110MF motorcycles through the government agency, and the recipients have also been automatically registered as FoodPanda riders.
The first 100 recipients received their brand new rides today during a handover ceremony by Hajiji at the Sabah International Convention Centre.
“In light of this, the government will expand the programme so that more unemployed youth will also get the same opportunity,” he said.
Sabah has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 9% as of 2021, with 184,200 individuals going jobless by the fourth quarter of last year.
State data confirmed that from that figure, 119,038 are active job seekers.
Speaking to The Vibes at the side-lines of the ceremony, 30-year-old recipient Abdullah Abdul Han described his windfall as a sign of good luck for his firstborn.
The part-time worker is expecting the arrival of his first child next month and has been changing jobs from time to time, including painting furniture at a factory in Tuaran.
“I had been working part-time jobs ever since returning home to Sabah two years ago to get married to my wife.
“We got married in November last year, and now I am staying at my in-law workers’ quarters in Inanam,” said the Semporna native, who had previously worked as a factory operator in Klang, Selangor.
However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw a nationwide lockdown on various sectors, Abdullah lost his job and was forced to sell off his motorcycle to survive.
“Lucky for me that I manage to find a new job and save up to return here to get married,” said Abdullah.
He said he found out about Sedia’s Bizrider300 programme via Facebook, where it accidentally came out from his news feed.
The soon-to-be-dad immediately applied for the programme after he realised it was not fake news.
“One week later, they called and informed me that my application has been approved,” he said.
Another recipient, Siska Hana Saimon, 29, said becoming a food delivery rider will give her the flexibility to look after her three children aged one, three and five.
Siska, who hails from Kota Belud, said time has become more difficult after her husband died due to brain cancer two months ago.
“My husband used to work as a contractor in Negeri Sembilan, but after detecting cancer in 2018, he returned to Sabah and decide to tap rubber for a living,” said Siska, adding that she could not work full time as it was hard to get help to look after her children. – The Vibes, July 14, 2022
