By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

NO fewer than 43 civil servants, on Tuesday, benefitted from a training workshop on basic enterprises development and management organised in Abuja, the nation’s capital, by the National Directorate of Employment.

The 3-day workshop drew participants from the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Arc. Zubairu Usman, who was also the leading resource person, said the capacity-building programme was aimed at raising a pool of trainers on business development to support the Federal Government’s quest to tackle unemployment.

He said, “There are 43 participants, drawn from the 36 States and the FCT, including the headquarters staff. The workshop is about building the capacity of the trainers on basic enterprises development and management.

“What it means is that the government is trying to raise a fresh pool of trainers throughout the nation on enterprises development and management. This is because their predecessors in service are retiring and exiting with their knowledge. So, there has to be a format whereby those following them will take up the knowledge since the civil service is a continuous process.”

In his keynote address, the Director-General, National Directorate of Employment, Mr Abubakar Fikpo, explained that the training exercise was geared towards preparing the participants for subsequent training schemes conducted by the main government agency, saddled with the task of combating mass unemployment in the country.

“It is anticipated that the training and retraining of officers would provide them with abilities and skills which would prepare them to deal with the day-to-day challenges experienced in the course of the discharge of their duties,” he added.

Earlier, the NDE Director, Small Scale Enterprise Department, Mr Apakasa David, said the workshop for the selected federal workers was borne out of the government’s passion for enterprise development and its mission to ensure continuity and sustainability of entrepreneurship skills training across the country.

“This training is in line with the policy thrust of the management to improve the capacity of officers,” Apakasa stressed.

Vanguard News Nigeria