Lagos intensifies efforts to empower more youth on entrepreneurial skills

The Lagos State government has increased the number of vocational training centres under the State Agency for Mass Education from seven to nine so as to bring the facilities nearer to anticipated trainees from around the new locations and also increase the number of annual beneficiaries of the scheme across the state.

The two new centres are sited in Badagry and Epe Local Government areas and will become operational this month.

The director, Lagos State Agency for Mass Education, Oluwakemi Kalesanwo, made this disclosure at a sensitisation programme organised by the agency for over 700 newly certified entrepreneurs by the state government.

While noting that the new facilities would also help to improve compliance with the COVID-19 protocols, Kalesanwo added that more than 1,000 youths were currently on the ground to be trained with the right skills to make them entrepreneurs on their own.

On the sensitisation, the director, in a statement made available by the head of Public Affairs unit, Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr Oyelami, Adesoye, explained that the programme was designed to expose the trainees to additional opportunities that are available to them to set up their Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and what to do to make those businesses big in the nearest future.

“So, we tried to let them interact with the officials responsible for funds disbursement and also enlightened them on financial literacy so as to be prudent in their spending,” she stressed.

Earlier, an assistant director in the agency, Kikelomo Olawunmi, told the trainees that investigations conducted over the years showed that many entrepreneurs were not financially literate and that oftentimes affects their ability to expand their businesses after many years.

On the mode of loan disbursement, the Liaison officer for Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Ikorodu branch, Jubril Matti, explained that the fund was created for entrepreneurs to kick-start and expand their businesses with ease.

He disclosed that each trainee could get a loan of between N50,000 and N2500 00 and has a 15 months window to pay back.

 

 

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