By Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu (Bauchi State Correspondent)
The Bauchi State Office of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), on Wednesday, commenced a 5-day training for 20 Bauchi women, mothers, in shoe and bag making.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the program at an agency conference hall in Bauchi, the Director General of the agency, Mallam Nuhu Fipko, said a total of seven hundred and forty (740) women have been selected nationwide at the rate of twenty (20) women per state.
Ably represented by the State Coordinator, Ali Lawal Yaya, Fipko, said the ultimate aim of the project was to address the aspirations of the teeming unemployed in the nation. He said the agency has a presence in the State Capitals of the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT as well as liaison offices in the 774 local gov
He explained that the 1st phase of the training was simultaneously held in the 19 Northern States and the FCT between the 27th and 31st of March 2023. While the 2nd phase would hold in the 17 Southern States soonest.
According to the DG, the agency had reached out to its target population through four core programmes dedicated to the development of entrepreneurial abilities among women and youths and also to inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and self-reliance in the unemployed to assist them to set up their businesses.
He further said it's the mission of the agency to design and implement job creation programmes that will promote attitudinal change, employment generation, reduce, poverty and enhance wealth creation.
Fipko, therefore, advises women to form a cooperative society to enable them have more access to loans from the various financial institutions.
In his speech, the head of the department, small-scale enterprise in the agency, Ms Chikodi Ike, represented by principal enterprise development officer, Miss Justina Akoji, said the main target of the project is to empower the women to become self-reliant and become employers of labour.
She disclosed that after the training, the beneficiary will be given a starter pack to consolidate what they have learned to start up their businesses.
Also speaking, the HOD vocational skills development (VSD), Jamilu Adamu, used the opportunity to call on the beneficiary to put more effort to ensure that the goal of the project is achieved. He urged the beneficiaries to extend the knowledge to others in their respective communities to achieve the desired goal of the project. NNL.
