By Nahum Sule (Taraba State Correspondent, in Jalingo)
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Taraba state has taken a look at the level of progress and development achieved by it beneficiaries in the state who have established their business through the NDE's loans scheme.
The assessment was supervised by the Taraba state NDE coordinator, Mallan Danjuma Shehu, who led a delegation to see how some of the previous beneficiaries have established their businesses with the loans they received from the scheme.
According to Shehu, the NDE in Taraba is committed in youth training, both the educated and the uneducated, in other to encourage them to make a living and help others in the community.
In his words, "We trained youths for various skills and we empowered them to be successful. Today, we have all seen the impact of NDE on the lives of some of the beneficiaries we have visited. They now have a means of livelihood. Not only that, they also employed youths to work under them, which in turn has reduced the unemployment rate.
"When we are recruiting the unemployed youths, we do give them counselling, valuable orientation, and ask them to choose the trade they want to engage in. We recommend them to choose for themselves instead of NDE choosing for them. And those who can't afford living in the urban areas, we also mobilised our team to teach them in the rural areas".
NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Correspondent who was part of the NDE delegation that visited the site of one of the beneficiary, Andesiya Iliya Adamu, who is now the CEO of Andy Footwear Enterprise, a shoe-making and cobbling shop, he said with the help of NDE now, he has employed 6 workers and have 15 apprentices.
He asserts that, "I started as an apprentice under the NDE. They trained me for a year, after which they gave me loan to start up my business. Today, I'm building a new shop, and I've established myself. Thanks to NDE.
Adamu who said he was a young graduate with no hope of getting a white collar job, but with the help of NDE today he has people working for him and he pays them monthly.
Also, Adam Dawi Mshelbwala, a beneficiary and the proprietor of El-Roi Primary and Secondary Schools, says the NDE is like his parents. "They gave me loan of N300,000 ten years ago, and with that today, I'm running a school with about 700 students. Even though I'm lacking infrastructure, but with the help of NDE, I have built a standard school".
Mshelbwala now runs a successful school with the loan he obtained from the Directorate of Employment Agency. According to him, he has 44 teachers working under him.
The delegation were able to reach out to three beneficiaries within the city of Jalingo, including the shop of Cornelius Ngala, who is a welder. According to Ngala, he was trained by the Employment agency of the federal government in the 90s and he has trained more than 60 youth and now have 6 employees on a monthly stipends.
The State NDE Coordinator, who explained that the beneficiaries were trained in modern facilities depending on their preferred choice of work, where given capital at the end of their training. NNL.
