Johnkennedy Uzoma | Owerri
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced Enterprise and Finance Counselling Clinic training of 25 graduates, school leavers, school dropouts and artisans in Imo State.
The Director-General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, disclosed this while declaring open the ceremony in Owerri.
Represented by the Imo State Coordinator of NDE, Chisara Winifred Egwim-Chima, Fikpo said the concept of NDE-EFCC was born out of the desire to provide opportunity for business persons facing challenges to obtain solutions through experience sharing and through counselling.
The Director-General noted that the high statistics of unemployment in Nigeria could result in frustration and various anti-social behaviours such as youth restiveness, prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, among others.
He said, “Unemployment situation has reached an alarming rate that demands immediate solutions.”
According to him, the NDE, since its establishment by an Act of Government in 1987, has remained the foremost Federal Government agency to implement programmes meant to tackle mass unemployment through various strategies developed over the years.
While urging the participants to take advantage of the opportunity to do their utmost to get to the best out of the training, Fikpo acknowledged the cooperation of the state government in creating the enabling environment for the directorate to operate within its mandate.
The Imo State Coordinator of NDE assured the participants that at the end of their training, they would have every course to rejoice for the knowledge acquired.
She advised them to show gratitude to the NDE by putting to use the knowledge acquired during the training in their daily business activities to ensure success.
In her welcome address, the Head of Department, Small Scale Enterprises, Mrs Chikodi T.Ike, said that the event marks the first batch of the NDE Enterprises and Finance Counseling (NDE-EFCC), adding that the second batch will take place soon.
Mrs Ike, who was represented by Carol Eluwa, Acting HOD WEB at the NDE national headquarters, Abuja, said that the training was developed as part of the effort of the NDE to equip unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions to enhance their capacity to succeed in their chosen businesses.
She pointed out that the entire job creation activities of the directorate cover three broad categories which include value-reorientation and skills acquisition and resettlement.
According to Ike, NDE has always carried these activities with vigour, dedication and commitment to its mandate of reducing unemployment and poverty within the limit of its resources.
She said, “Empowerment of trained persons is very capital intensive and it therefore difficult for the NDE to resettle every person trained through various programmes. That is why the directorate took the initiative to enter into collaboration with some credit-granting institutions in order to expand the scope of its resettlement to accommodate more skilled unemployed persons.”
In his response, a participant at the programme, Ebenezer Praise Ejimadu, thanked the NDE for initiating the programme to train and inculcate into them the needed ideas that would help them to effectively engage in business.
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