Dayo Johnson – Akure

The Niger Delta Ministry has trained and empowered over 1500 youths in various states in the Niger Delta region.

The youths were trained in various entrepreneur vocations in poultry, piggery, apiculture, photography, fishery, sewing, tailoring, weaving, bead making, oil, and gas.

Speaking during the empowerment program,  the Minister of State for Niger Delta,  Senator Tayo Alasoadura, said the empowerment was necessitated by the need to develop the manpower capacity of the Niger Delta region.

He said the “intensive training was aimed to make the youths self-reliant, urging them to value the new knowledge and skills more than any other resources because it will stay with them forever.

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Speaking through Engr. Rotimi Eniasoro, the Minister said “the training and empowerment became necessary in order to develop both physical infrastructure and human capital to be able to enhance significantly the quality of living in the Niger Delta region.

He noted “that development is not about physical infrastructure alone, but also about developing the requisite manpower that can propel the development of the region.

He reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government towards creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the Niger Delta region.

According to him “the training is an annual program designed for Niger Delta youths by the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs across the nine states in the region.

Alasoadura said the “main objective of the initiative of the ministry is to make the youths of the Niger-Delta region to be self-employed and to be meaningfully engaged”

He also advised the youths to seize the opportunity availed them by the ministry to impact lives positively and also to be employers of labours in the shortest possible time.

He congratulated the participants and admonished them to use their empowerment start-up package which ranges from N300,000 and N500,000 to start up small various businesses and grow big.

The participants while special on behalf of other trainees, commended the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs for the opportunity and promised to deploy all they learnt during the course of the programme to starting up various businesses and to be employers of labours.

They expressed gratitude to the Federal Government and the Niger Delta Ministry for the opportunity to gain skills that will make them useful participants in the Nigerian economy.

The participants were given certificates of participation at the end of the one-week programme.

The consultant of the programme “Dansteph Multi Project Limited”, represented by her manager, Mrs Gloria Morah, admonished the beneficiaries to look beyond the start-up empowerment package.

Morah urged them to put all the knowledge acquired into various businesses, stressing that the sky would be their limiters.

Vanguard News Nigeria