The National Directorate of Employment has commenced the training of five hundred and forty (540) youths on advanced business development skills in Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
The Cross River State Coordinator of NDE, Mr. Gabriel Udam made the remark in an interview with newsmen in Calabar at the end of a two day advance business training programme for 180 youths drawn from the seven local government areas, which constitute the southern senatorial district.
Udam explained that the 540 youths were part of the 774,000 beneficiaries of the Nigerian Governments Special Public Works programme.
Business guide
He indicated that the essence of the training was to guide beneficiaries of the Special Public Works on how to utilise the loans received efficiently as entrepreneurs and future employers of labour.
According to Udam, “the idea behind this training as directed by the Director General of NDE, Mr. Abubakar Fikpo, is to guide the ESPW beneficiaries especially those, who have received monies, on how to use their money for sustainable businesses.
“When a person does not have these rudimentary business ideas, there is a tendency for mismanagement. So, our headquarters thought it wise to bring these youths together and train them on ways to identify business opportunities and key into them,” the NDE coordinator said.
The state coordinator expressed the hope that the beneficiaries from the southern senatorial districts would immediately delve into developing viable business plan, which would meet the funding requirement of the Nigerian Government.
Explaining further, Udam stated, “the guide here is to enable them develop their businesses, become entrepreneurs and become secondary employers of labour. So, they not only employ themselves, but they also employ others.
“We expect that after this training, which is also taking us to the central and northern senatorial districts, the youths would develop business plans that would attract funding through the NDE from the Nigerian Government,” he remarked.
Business-made-easy
The Head of Special Works Department, NDE Calabar office, Mr. Anthony Agogo stated that the participants had earlier received basic business training through the magnanimity of the Nigerian Government.
“The Federal Government in its magnanimity has given the beneficiaries highlights, workbooks for them to be able to read and know what to do to become entrepreneurs. We do not have a specific position of any business, but the general knowledge for them to do business is what we are doing here,” he noted.
Another facilitator of the training and Head of Small Scale Enterprises department, Mrs. Theresa Mbang enumerated the various training courses offered during the training, disclosing that the same package would be utilised for the training of other beneficiaries in Ikom and Ogoja districts.
Mbang stated, “the youths were taught by seven different resource persons and the areas included feasibility studies, business idea, writing a business plan, proposals of which a lot of people do not know how to write. We also taught them about marketing their goods, produce or services, what is involved in costing and most importantly we also exposed them to reasons why businesses fail and customer relations.”
The NDE expressed the hope that the 540 beneficiaries would effectively utilise the knowledge gained and develop business plans that the Nigerian Government would fund, which would in turn impact the Cross River State and national economies positively.
Dominica Nwabufo
