Delta State government is to partner with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to train senior secondary school girls on measures to prevent trafficking and common tactics deployed by traffickers to lure their victims.
This is as the administration has entered into another partnership with Junior Achievers of Nigeria with the aim of assisting and empowering survivors of trafficking in the state.
The State Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Community Support Services, and Girl Child Development, Miss Orode Uduaghan, made this known in Asaba, the state capital, while briefing members of the Asaba Correspondent’s Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) who paid her a courtesy visit on Thursday.
According to the commissioner, the organisation (NAPTIP) is coming to Delta State with the aim of teaching girls who are in SS2 and SS3 entrepreneurial skills.
“His Excellency (Governor Sheriff Oborevwori) just recently approved that, so that is going to be happening in all the 25 local government areas of the state.”
Also on girl-child development initiatives, the Commissioner announced that the state government had approved a programme to train girls in the 25 local government areas between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five on digital literacy, entrepreneurship skills, and business management to become self-sustaining individuals.
She observed that in 2024, the ministry, in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, empowered 250 people in each of the 25 local government areas, where 1700 outstanding participants were given grants of N150,000 each to set up their businesses.
On the humanitarian agenda of the ministry, Miss Orode Uduaghan pointed out that under the M.O.R.E Grant Scheme, which focused on business holders from poor and vulnerable households, the government had provided between N70,000 and N100,000 to 1600 petty traders to encourage their businesses.
The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs added that 1826 artisans engaged in various works also received support under the M.O.R.E Grant Scheme executed by her ministry.
“We had about thirty professions, we are talking about people who repair bicycles to people who repair fridges, etc. His Excellency (Governor Oborevwori) supported 1826 of them.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Asaba Correspondent’s Chapel, Comrade Ifeanyi Olannye, commended the important role played by the Humanitarian Affairs, Community Support Services, and Girl Child Development Ministry in supporting poor and vulnerable households, especially under the current economic hardships.
Comrade Ifeanyi Olannye, who emphasised the role of journalists as watchdogs of society, with a duty to hold the government accountable, also pledged the support of members of the chapel to promote the developmental agenda of the government.
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