The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced a five-day training of 20 women on shoe and bag making with fabrics under the Women Employment Branch (WEB) in Imo State.
In his keynote address at the opening session of the training in Owerri at the weekend, the Director-General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, said that 740 women have been selected nationwide at the rate of 20 women per state.
Represented at the flag-off ceremony by the Imo State Coordinator of NDE, Mrs Chisara Winifred Eqwim-Chima, Mallam Fikpo said that NDE is the foremost Federal Government agency with the mission to design and implement job creation programmes aimed at promoting attitudinal change and employment generation.
He said, “NDE is on the drive towards making it easier for successful beneficiaries to grow and expand their business.” He added that NDE has its presence in all the 36 states of the federation and FCT as well as liaison offices in the 774 local government councils where its schemes and activities are effectively executed.
Fikpo further said that through Small Scale Enterprises (SSE), NDE has designed programmes dedicated to the development of entrepreneurial abilities among women and youths with the aim of inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and self-reliance in the unemployed.
He described the Women Employment Branch (WEB) as a platform of the Small Scale Enterprises Department that is responsible for undertaking the training, which its objectives is to design income-generating activities for women in order to generate mass employment and reduce poverty amongst women.
The NDE DG added that the training would focus on decorative paint making, embroidery, (stone/beads on clothes), perfumery, organic products, extraction of natural organic oil, spice/seasoning production, turban (headgear) making, event decoration, makeup and gele, and rafia works, among others.
While encouraging the trainees to listen attentively to their trainers and practice whatever they are taught at home, he advised them not to allow domestic duties distract them.
Earlier in her remarks, the host and the Coordinator of Imo NDE, Mrs Chisara Winkfred Egwim-Chima commended the NDE in its commitment to make people skillful and to be employed.
In her welcome address, through the Head of Department (HOD), Small Scale Enterprises Department, Mrs Chikodi Dike, said that the purpose of the training was designed by the Directorate to generate employment, create wealth and self-employment, especially among unskilled women.
Dike, represented by Mrs Chike Joy Eze, said the five-day training will be conducted by skillful professionals who will train them on the rudiments of making shoes and bags.
Mrs Dike also informed the trainees that at the end of their training, they would be provided with some money to enable them to establish their business. She charged them that as mothers, they are expected to exhibit a high level of commitment and discipline to ensure the goals of the training is achieved.
The HOD, WEB, NDE Imo State, Mrs Cecilia Uhegbu, enjoyed the trainees to maximise the opportunity to have skills that would help them in life. She added, “Once you have skills, you have something to survive in the society.”
She went on to thank NDE for choosing to empower women even as she noted that women play an important role in society.
One of the trainees, Miss Udoka Osuagwu, on behalf of others, thanked the NDE for creating such an opportunity for them to be empowered in life. She said that such empowerment would help the women in life especially to sustain their families.
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