No fewer than 200 men and women were, on Saturday, empowered by Hon. Olusegun Popoola, representing Ibadan South-East constituency II in the Oyo State House of Assembly.
NAN reports that the people were empowered in hairdressing, shoemaking, barbing, makeup and fashion designing, among others.
Popoola told NAN that the empowerment was aimed at reducing the number of unemployed people in the constituency.
He added that when more people were empowered, the number of idle ones in the society would reduce.
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“When people have one thing or the other to do, they will be occupied and negative thoughts won’t come to their minds. We have too many unemployed youths in the state.
“With this empowerment today, we will have lesser unemployed persons in my constituency. This is just the beginning of the many empowerment programmes I have lined up,” he said.
The lawmaker, however, urged the beneficiaries to be diligent in their chosen fields and make maximum use of the opportunity afforded them by the empowerment programme.
“Many people want this. Now that you have it, I urge you to make good use of it. I also want you to be employers of labour. You should be able to train people too. The reduction of unemployment is our collective responsibility.
“We all need to contribute our own quota towards the development of our dear state,” he said.
NAN