NDE tasks unemployed women on skills acquisition for jobs, wealth creation
The Director-General, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Malam Abubakar Nuhu, has tasked unemployed women in Nigeria on the need for skills acquisition to become self reliant, create wealth and employment.
Nuhu gave the charge at the official commencement of Skills Acquisition Training of Women in Art of Wig, Turban, and Decorative Paint Making, under the NDE’s Women Employment Branch (WEB) on Friday in Effurun, Warri, Delta.
Represented by the Acting State Coordinator, NDE, Mr Sylvanus Onyeogo, Nuhu said that no fewer than 30 unemployed women in the state had been selected to benefit from the one week training, which started on Wednesday.
He said that the training was within the framework of NDE, adding that its first task was to put in place programmes to re-orientate youths and women towards the culture of skills acquisition, hence, the birth of WEB.
According to him, WEB of Small Scale Enterprise (SSE) is designed specifically to improve socio-economic development of women in their communities and the state in general.
“When women are living safe, fulfilled and productive lives, they can reach their full potentials and contribute their skills to national development.
“A total of 30 women would be trained in each state of the federation, and at the end of the training, they would be empowered to practice their skills.
“The objectives of the training are to create employment for women, improve women socio-economic status, reduce poverty and create wealth among women,” he said.
Nuhu charged the beneficiaries to make effective use of the training to transform their lives from job-seekers to employers of labour.
In his remarks, Mr Collins Mukoro, the Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, advised the participants to take the training serious.
He explained that such opportunities were rare, and a privilege to enable the women transforms their lives of dependency to wealth creators.
Mukoro noted that the skills would enable them become employers of labour and also generate income for themselves.
Earlier, Mr Sylvanus Onyeogo, Acting State Coordinator, NDE, thanked Nuhu and his management for approving the training in Delta.
Onyeogo, represented by Mr Matthew Okpomu, Director Vocational Skills Development, NDE, said that the training was a form of loan disbursement to the beneficiaries in the art of making wigs, turbans, and decorative paints under WEB.
“This training is another manifestation of the Federal Government’s concern for the unemployed women in the state.
“NDE was established in 1987 with the mandate to fight unemployment from every possible angle.
“We started with vocational skills development, small scale enterprises, rural employment promotion and special public works programmes,” he said.
According to him, the NDE has since modified, and even expanded these original programmes to meet the dynamics and demand of time.
“Our approach de-emphasises dependency on wage employment.
“This one week skills are emergent and trending amongst women across the federation in quest for income generation and fashion styles,” Onyeogo said.
He tasked the beneficiaries to be committed to the training as it was a rare opportunity to overcome the economic hardship created by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.(NAN).
