A total number of 266 beneficiaries were presented with loan and starter packs by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Ilorin, Kwara state.
This number is out of the 5,532 beneficiaries nationwide in the Renewed Hope Employment Initiative.
Speaking at the resettlement of the NDE trained beneficiaries in Ilorin, the Director General of the NDE, Silas Agara, said that the employment agency, for over three months, equipped 33,692 unemployed youths, women and Persons Living with Disabilities with vocational training skills.
The NDE boss, who was represented by Mrs. Folarin Josephine, said that the initiative was set up to train citizens and empower them to become not only self-employed but employers of labour.
“The Renewed Hope Employment Initiative is designed to generate employment opportunities, support the growth of small-scale enterprises, enhance agriculture productivity, improve rural infrastructure, and provide transitional jobs. In turn, this will foster economic growth and empower our communities”, she said.
Some of the beneficiaries included those under Graduate Attachment Programme, Environmental Beautification Training Scheme, Rural Employment Promotion and Small Scale Enterprises, among others.
In his speech at the event, the state Commissioner for Youths Development, Ambassador Shehu Usman, who also represented the wife of the state governor, Ambassador Olufolake AbdulRazaq commended the NDE for its dedication to poverty eradication and economic development.
He charged the beneficiaries to use the opportunity for good purposes, saying that they should extend the gesture to help members of their communities.
Also, the state coordinator of the NDE, Mr. Kudabo Gabriel, urged the beneficiaries to utilise the equipment provided effectively rather than selling them, emphasizing the importance of staying true to the initiative’s objectives.
He encouraged them not to sell the equipment provided through this initiative, as doing so would be counter productive to its intended goal.
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