By Appolos
The newly appointed Acting Director General of the of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, has reiterated the commitment of the Directorate to providing marketable skills and adequate jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerians.
Fikpo, stated this at the resettlement exercise of NDE and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) collaboration exercise held in Bwari, FCT Abuja, where 56 persons received starter packs.
Speaking atthe event, the DG said that the disbursement exercise was part of the Federal Government efforts at enhancing job creation and promoting self reliance.
56 youths and women who were drawn from Kogi and Plateau States were trained in Catering services, Photography and GSM handset repairs under the Youths at Risk Programme.
The Acting D-G, went on to say that the training is aimed at delivering marketable and functional skills to the beneficiaries, thus creating pool of competent artisans ready to contribute positively towards the development of their locality and the nation at large. After six months of intensive training, he stated that the beneficiaries of the empowerment exercise are expected to set up their individual micro enterprises within their immediate localities where they will contribute to economic growth of the nation.
While he appreciated the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) for partnering the NDE in delivering the training and the starter packs to the beneficiaries, he observed that the UNDP has remained a strong partner of NDE and a veritable institution for the promotion and execution of job creation initiatives in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, he charged the beneficiaries to redouble their efforts in ensuring the sustainability of their enterprises and justify the huge capital invested in them promised to provide mentoring and support services to ensure that the beneficiaries do not relapse into the unemployed market, adding that the initiative was part of the economic policy of the Muhammadu Buhari’sadministration to create mass employment opportunities for the unskilled and unemployed Nigerians through micro business programmes and schemes.
