Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Christopher Maikalangu, says that it is better to be self-employed than to wait for white collar job as the government cannot employ everyone.
The chairman disclosed this during the flag-off exercise of phase one of the empowerment of 700 residents of the council, held at Apo resettlement town hall, on Thursday.
Maikalangu assured that the beneficiaries will be given start-up kits to practise their professions.
He said: “Since I assumed office, it has been my past time to empower residents of the council. As of the last count, I have absorbed 360 residents of the council across the 12 wards in AMAC. If you have not benefited, ask questions in your community, someone must have benefited.
“Every family in AMAC has about five graduates. If you multiply that we have many graduates. There is no way the Federal Government will employ everyone. The truth is that we cannot employ everyone too. That is why there is need for youths to be self-employed.
“This is just phase one of the empowerment scheme. We selected 100 beneficiaries. We identified them in the 12 wards of AMAC and asked what they wanted to be trained on. Some wanted to learn tailoring, baking, welding, barbing, ICT, among others. We thereby attached them to professionals and organisations, where they were trained.
“We will give them starter packs to start practicing what they trained on. Gone are the days when our items will end up being sold at markets. Going forward, we will inspect and monitor the trainees to ensure they utilise the tools for the right purposes. After this phase, we will move on to the next phase, which will be bigger.
“I implore the present beneficiaries to allow other families to benefit. Despite the fact that we can’t reach everyone, we don’t want one family to benefit twice, while other families haven’t benefited. So, we want to spread the empowerment.
“It is not everyone that will be employed in the civil service. Even those in the service wait for the end of the month to receive salaries. But if you are self-employed, you will be making money on a daily basis. If you watch 10 cars at N1,000 each, that is N10,000 per day, times it by 30. That is N300,000 per month. Many civil servants are not making up to that.”
Some of the beneficiaries, including Mary Bala, Juliet Justine and Umezuruike David, said they have gained enough knowledge to stand on their own.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the Chairman on ICT, Mr Jackson, said the empowerment is a replica of what the Chinese Government is doing to their youths that make China a world trade centre today.
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