Federal Government through National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, on Friday handed over multi-million naira equipment and cash donations to over 100 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Abuja.
Some of the equipment given to the beneficiaries who were trained in various skills and trades are Butterfly Sowing Machines and electric motors, Professional Photographic Cameras, bead making materials, among others.
One of the Cameroonian Refugees Shuri Tijie Immaculate from North West Cameroon Region who was trained in the arts of bead/Jewelry making, applauded Nigerian Government for the initiative, which she described as interesting.
“My name is Shuri Tijie Immaculate, I am from the North West Cameroon Region, Baminda.
“It was a very interesting training programme and they empowered us today. I am very happy for it. With today’s empowerment, I will go and start making beads, market it and start earning my living. I will also train other people.
“Today we were given some materials, certificates and cash donations,” Shuri said during an exclusive chat with Sunday Tribune.
While speaking on the successful completion of the Empowerment programme which took place across IDP camps across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Federal Commissioner, Mrs. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim tasked all the beneficiaries on the need to explore their environment in the bid to attract customers and expand to other localities.
While giving an update on the IDPs/Refugees population in the country, she disclosed that: “it’s a lot of numbers. We are about 3.4 million IDPs as of June, July, and August. After the devastating flood across the country, it rose to about 40 percent more, almost over 5 million, it’s difficult to train 5 million people at a stretch. What we are praying for is to intensify the effort and then build the momentum and then we have the ripple effects.”
She however noted that the Commission as well as other partners including National Directorate of Employment (NDE) are training other Person’s of Concerns.
She said: “First and foremost, training is being sustained across board, across sectors. For this particular training 100 people were trained in about almost 10 different trades. You can see they are all excited, they are not being trained but they are certified, they have gone through the NABTEB, they are certified Tye & Dye Specialists, they are certified Fashion Designers. So they are certified in the fields that they’ve been trained.
“So that means, they can be able to beat their chests and say look I know about photography. What we are looking for is sustainability, not just durable solutions. So, the Federal Government is committed to the highest forms of sustainable and durable solutions for all people of concerns.”
On the criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries, she said: “most of our trainings are tailor-fit, we look for interest, we look for natural skills and talents and sometimes words of mouth, these trainings are not secret they are being thrown out, so people that are interested will declare interest. And we have our database that also kind of indicates who wants to do what.”
While responding to question on Federal Governments plan on the exit camps to wind down the IDP camps across the country, she said: “It’s actually exit camps, but if you say closed down it’s a bit more harsh. Yes we don’t want camps we want to build self sufficiency; we don’t want overdependence on government.
“Every country wants contributory members of the society, the core mandate of this Agency is the provision of durable solutions for persons of concerns and we are committed to ensuring that these people build their resilience, we have the coping mechanisms they can contribute, they can earn, they can help the economy of this country and they can bounce back.”
While speaking on the Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism put in place by the Commission, she said: “collectively we’ve done a lot of interventions but because we don’t have M & E in place, so it was not sustainable. Like I told you, it was not just about the training its about sustainability. That’s why we are putting different monitoring mechanisms in place like the certification, they are not just trained, they are certified and they have their starter packs and we have some monitoring indicators in place that would help us to monitor them.
“If you look at it, some starter packs are in two, three, four stages, so we’ve given them stage one. When you progress, we give you stage two, and we also have other complimenting services, like we help them to register their businesses, we help them to open their bank accounts, we help them to be more accountable to themselves. I also told them that by this training I hereby declare them Entrepreneurs not IDPs. So there is a mental release,” she noted.
She explained that the beneficiaries were drawn from various IDP camps so we do train them across the FCT, so we are exiting camps and the pilot is from FCT and most of these beneficiaries are not just IDPs but there are also Refugees and other Persons of Concerns. So, it cuts across board, we have a lot of beneficiaries but from today going forward as I told you they’ve transited from being IDPs to Persons of Concerns to Victorious people and now they are Entrepreneurs. There are 100 of them.
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“As I speak with you, there is one going on at NDE, next week before the Christmas they will also collect their packs. Last month there were some people that got their packs so, the training is ongoing across the country. If you go to our website pages you’ll see that we have been training people from last mont, we’ve been everywhere and this has been happening over the month and over the years within the Agency and also our partners are also complimenting efforts and also other state and local government players.
“So, durable solutions is the keyword, we don’t want over-dependency on the government, we can’t afford to feed. No government can afford over-depemdency from Persons of Concerns. These problems are evolving so we also have to step up and intensify on our interventions and we are on the right track.
“For the photographers they have the cameras and also they will get a computer afterwards. For the people making beads, they will get some money to buy tools and also tool box for the basic things they need but they can’t buy at the market, for the Tie & Dye Specialists, the also got money to buy materials and they got the kits of the Tye & Dye needs. Like for the certified Fashion Designers, they have their sewing machines and some kits and materials to begin to start sowing. So, it’s tailor-fit,” the Federal Commissionner noted.