Skills Acquisition: Agency empowers Women in Akwa Ibom

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has empowered women in Akwa Ibom state through a five-day training on shoe and bag making

The Director-General of NDE, Abubakar Fikpo, who spoke during the official flag-off of the Skills Acquisition Training in Uyo, said the programme targeted unemployed women across the country.

Fikpo, who was represented by the State Coordinator of NDE, Mr Obegolu Obiora, said that the empowerment was to generate mass employment and reduce poverty amongst women.

“The programme is dedicated to developing entrepreneurial abilities among women and youths.

“It is also to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and self-reliance in the unemployed, with a view to assisting them in setting up their own businesses,” he said.

According to him, the Women Employment Branch (WEB), a platform of the Small Scale Enterprise Department, is responsible for undertaking the training

Fikpo said that the objective of the training was to design income-generation activities for women in order to generate mass employment and reduce poverty among them.

He said that in 2022, the directorate, through WED, kick-started the training in income-generation activities in some skills.

Fikpo said the skills included: decorative painting making, embroidery (stone/beads on clothes), perfumery, organic products, extraction of natural organic oil, spice/seasoning production, turban making, event decorations, make up, gele and rafia works.

“The products and services emanating from these skills are in high demand. Therefore, we expect our beneficiaries to be doing well in their current endeavours,” he said.

Fikpo disclosed that in the previous years, the directorate had created over one million direct jobs for women of all categories through skills acquisition and entrepreneurial training opportunities.

NAN/PIAK