Anambra State Commissioner for Youth Empowerment and Creative Economy, Prof Theresa Obiekezie says government will sustain its technical and support services for youths trained in various skill acquisition programmes.
To achieve the desired objective, government had engaged some development experts to mentor skill graduates on strategies for running successful businesses.
According to her, coaching and mentoring are critical components of youth empowerment agenda of the Ministry to enable trained manpower effectively overcome challenges militating against entrepreneurship.
Mentorship programme
The Commissioner spoke during a Mentoring Session for skilled graduates at the Ministry’s Hall and urged them to maximize opportunity offered to them to not only grow their businesses but to train others.
“We have mentored so many of them including those trained long time ago and those that were not directly trained by the Ministry. Some of those trained are already working on their own.
“Some are working with people under a kind of apprenticeship. We equally go to the field to supervise what they are doing and how they are running those businesses. We try to direct or re-direct them in order to achieve success,” She added
Impacting lives
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Louisa Ezeanya, noted that the programme had continued to impact on the lives of skilled graduates since its inception.
“We realized from our field visits that so many of them are practising their trade with positive responses. So, the huge amount government is spending is not a waste”.
In a lecture, one of Resource persons, Obinna Nwakpadolu of the Jassy Coaching Services, identified strength of character, intellectual, social and financial capitals as critical to sustaining business ventures.
He encouraged them to strive at making inventions and inject something new to grow their businesses especially in a highly competitive economic environment.
Director General, Digital Entrepreneurship Office, Ifeanyi Aniagor, attributed failure in running businesses to lack of self discovery, self development and planning.
While calling for attitudinal change, he urged them to always imbibe the spirit of positive mindset, avoid depression associated with managing small scale enterprises to record success stories.
Another resource person, Eloka Maduekwe, who spoke on “Access To Business Financing”, urged the participants to develop needed character that would qualify them to be considered for loans and grants to run their businesses.
He described financing as one of the most important factors in business which must be complemented by competence, commitment, collaboration and communication.
He then identified sources of credit facilities for small scale enterprises to include interest free loans by NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank established for such intervention measure amongst others.
Some of the skilled graduates, who participated in the programme including Olisa Okafor, trained in shoe making and Juliet Anaduaka, confectionery, described the programme as inspiring and called for its sustenance.
Nneka Ukachukwu
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