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Nath Emberga, Lafia.
In a bid to make youths in the state self reliant and employable, the Nasarawa State government has trained no fewer than 400 graduates drawn from across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state, in several entrepreneurship skills.
Speaking at the 2023 Employability and Entrepreneurship Training Programme in Lafia on Saturday, the Director General of the state’s Human Capital Development Agency, Habiba Balarabe-Suleiman, expressed optimism that the programme would enhance the capacity of the graduates to be gainfully employed and engage in meaningful ventures.
While narrating that the training programme had been in batches since its commencement in year 2020, Balarabe-Suleiman assured of the state government’s commitment to provide an enabling environment for the beneficiaries to explore their potentials, and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the state.
She explained that the course contents the beneficiaries had learnt include Business Plan Writing, Customer Service Excellence, Marketing Strategy, Business and Personal Finance Management, among others.
The Director General expressed confidence that the participants after completing the training, would be able to attract employers, start businesses of their own, and become employers of labour.
Balarabe-Suleiman said, “The employability and entrepreneurship training has so far being successful because of the determination of Governor Abdullahi Sule’s administration to engage youths positively. So, the training is basically to equip youths in Nasarawa State with 21st century skills.
“I can comfortably say that we have had a total change and achieved a lot of our expected outcome. So yes, it has been very intense because every day, we do back to back full course training with theory and practical sessions. So it has been quite an amazing experience for the beneficiaries.
“The programme for this year is actually the fourth edition, and 110 graduates are being trained. We had trained over 300 of them since the programme began. I want to commend our partners, Poise Graduate Academy and Oxfam Nigeria for their efforts thus far. We pledge to remain resolute in ensuring that the goals of the HCD Agency of eradicating poverty in the state are achieved.”
One of the participants who spoke on behalf of the others, Maria Obile, expressed gratitude to the organisers for the training programme, and promised to put the employability and entrepreneurship skills into good use.