ESI trains over 6,000 entrepreneurs in Nigeria

A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI) has revealed that the organisation has trained over 6,000 entrepreneurs in Nigeria over the past 10 years.

Disclosing this at the tenth anniversary of ESI in Abuja, the founder of the Initiative, Judith Dame Amaechi, wife of the Minister of Transportation said the organisation has “partnered with institutions like NDDC, shell and the likes. Everybody has a data page on what they do but am sure we have trained over 6000 people in various skills”.

Amaechi explained that in order for ESI to make impact through the training, “We usually don’t train more than 350″, noting that in the early days, the organisation could accommodate over 2000 trainees at a time.”but that didn’t work well because of some management issues, so we decided to deal with a number we can effectively impact”.

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She further explained that the organisation’s aim is to impact on lives of the less privileged positively. “We are more interested in handling the needs of the poor than seeking praises from the public, that is why we are not taking total credit for the training that was done in partnership with other institutions.

According to her, “Our own that we have trained without other people is 3500 then the ones we have trained in partnership with others is like 3000” adding that the training was done in automotive, hospitality/tourism, fashion and design among others.

Empower Support Initiative (ESI) was founded in 2008. The initiative has contributed significantly in sponsorship schemes like the women taxi scheme that empowered a lot of women in Rivers state.

Again, the initiative has established over 37 schools in Rivers state, educating over 30,000 less privileged children in nursery and primary school.

Amaechi commended foreign aid giving agencies and some federal government agencies for their support. “But like Oliver Twist, we will always ask for more as more is needed to cater for poor people in our communities” she stated.