National Directorate of Employment(NDE) has trained about 3.1 million unemployed persons in Nigeria in various skills and empowerment programmes in the last two years.
NDE Deputy Director and Head of Information and Public Relations Edmund Onwuliri made this known in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital during the media tours of Skills and Vocational centres of the Directorate in the state.
Onwuliri said the empowerment programmes of the NDE ranged from Special Public Workers(SPW), Small Scale Enterprise (SSE), Vocational Skills Development (VSD) and Rural Empowerment Programme (REP).
Also, some of the beneficiaries of the programmes who spoke to our correspondent commended the federal government and the directorate for the opportunity offered them.
Victoria Grimah of Kids wonders shopping centre in Lafia Nasarawa state took her time to explain the magic behind her success.
She said starting a business of any kind requires hard work and determination.
Grimah said before she approached the NDE for a loan, she has the business concept and all that needed was funds to push into, but nobody out there was ready to give her the money.
According to her, “I started a saloon with an initial capital of N60,000 only which the NDE gave me.
“I applied for a loan of N150,000 from the National Directorate for Employment (NDE) here in Lafia, but they approved N60,000 for me in 2009. With the assistance I received from NDE, I had to talk to them about why I needed more money and they later gave me N150,000.”
According to her, with the amount the directorate added, she decided to expand the business by adding baby items to the saloon she started.
” I have not less than N15 million as my own, and I have not less than six people working directly under me. This is because of her relentless push, seriousness and determination,” she said.
Grimah, however, said entrepreneurship offers a greater possibility of achieving significant financial rewards than working for the government and getting paid at the end of the month.
Also, Suleiman Adamu Alhassan who is a trainer and seller of phone accessories appreciated the gesture done to him by the NDE, saying, “I was a trainee with NDE but now a trainer I trained over 50 persons in my shop and so far I have seven persons that are working under me.
“I cannot go for a government job because what I am getting here is more than what government would give me at the end of the month, biddies I am an employer of labour. I preferred my business over a government job.
“We want to see how we can make youths smile in our society, by making them self reliance,” he said.
