To empower youths for a better future by imparting knowledge, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) gave some youths free six months intensive training to give them a source of livelihood through vocational training in partnership with a sponsor, the First City Monument Bank (FCMB).
After six months of intensive training and monitoring, the youths who are beneficiaries of an empowerment and vocational training scheme tagged ‘Empowerment for the Future’ scheme, penultimate week graduated in Abuja and Ibadan. This was after they had successfully learned trades like catering and decoration services, fashion design services, photography, hair dressing, phone and laptops repairs, barbing, makeup, wig making and furniture making at various learning centres.
The beneficiaries also had classes on money management, entrepreneurial development and marketing skills. And at the finale, the trainees demonstrated what they had learnt and how the scheme had benefitted them.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony in Ibadan, Bukola Favour Akingbohungbe, the programme officer at the Ibadan office of the Youth Empowerment Foundation, said the empowerment for the future started over seven years ago in three cities; Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan, to encourage youths to be self employed and be useful to themselves, even after their school certificate and be self sufficient instead of just lazing around, not doing things that would be useful to themselves, their family or to their larger society.
The representative of the sponsor, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Ayokunle Adewunmi, said the programme aligns with the vision of the bank in giving back to the society, adding that “we believe our business thrive because people come around to bank with us so this project is our means of giving back to the society in appreciation of people patronizing us. This economic empowerment is part of our mantra; we have three which is poverty alleviation, environment sustainability and economic empowerment. This is why we partnered with YEP to ensure we empower young minds in Nigeria to be independent financially as business owners who have a secured future.
In his assessment of the beneficiaries, he said, “this programme has helped because they went through lot of classroom sessions to equip them for life as an entrepreneur and they have all it takes to be independent business owners who can train others and this is our vision. We have been partnering with YEP for over eight years and we will continue.”
“With all these trainings and exposure and placing them in places to learn skills where we pay for their skills acquisition, monitor them on a monthly basis to know their welfare, to ensure that even their coaches are teaching them well and not just sending them on errands. We make sure that they focus on why we paid them to be there so that they can work, be employers of labor and reward creators first for themselves. Because the moment you’re able to help yourself, at least you are alleviating poverty first from yourself, to your family and to the society at large,” she said.
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