The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has embarked on training 25 unemployed graduates on accessing loan facilities in its Economic and Finance Counselling Clinic (EFCC) programme in Plateau.
Speaking at the opening of a five-day training on Monday in Jos, the Director-General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Fikpo, said that participants would have interactive engagements with bank officials for proper guidance.
Fikpo, who was represented by the acting Coordinator of NDE in Plateau, Mrs Asabe Lassa, said that the participants would also learn from the experiences of mentors, who were other beneficiaries of NDE.
He said that the mentors, with practical knowledge in business management, particularly handling challenges, would guide them in having alternatives to white-collar jobs and building on their existing businesses.
The NDE director-general added that the beneficiaries would guide the participants in identifying business opportunities and ideas, for possible expansion and diversification.
“It is our hope that your interaction with these resource persons and entrepreneurs will be a worthwhile experience,” he said.
Fikpo said that the directorate’s Small Scale Enterprises (SSE) department handling the implementation of the EFCC programme was saddled with the development of entrepreneurial potentials of youths, especially graduates of tertiary institutions, to enable them to become self-reliant.
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In her remarks, the acting Coordinator of NDE in the state urged the participants not to trivialise the knowledge that would be inculcated in them during the training, even if they already own businesses.
Lassa, who said that there would always be new knowledge to enhance the already existing businesses, urged them to take the training seriously in order to achieve its objectives.
In her remarks, the Head of the Department of SSE, Ms Chidoki Ike, said that the programme was designed to equip unemployed graduates with business and professional skills so as to build their capacities to become self-reliant.
Ike, represented by an official of the department, Mrs Justina Akoji, described the empowerment of trainees as capital intensive, leading to its difficulty in resettling all its trainees.
In addressing the situation, she said that NDE conceived the initiative of collaborating with some financial institutions, such as the Bank of Industry, to source finance for its teeming beneficiaries.
Akoji congratulated the participants for being selected among the many applicants for the programme, urging them to be open to learning and embrace new ideas.
Responding on behalf of the participants, Mr Virginus Ezenwa, thanked NDE for the training, assuring them that they would be committed to learning new skills that would enable them to establish and expand their respective businesses.
