By Daniel Tyokua
The Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, Thursday, flagged off the first Phase of the empowerment of 700 residents across the twelve wards.
Speaking at the flag off exercise held at Apo Resettlement townhall, Maikalangu said the beneficiaries will be given startup kits to practice their professions.
He said that it is better to be self employed than to wait for white collar jobs as government cannot employ everyone.
He said: “Since I assumed office, it has been my past time to empower residents of the Council. As at the last count, I have absorbed 360 residents of the council across the 12 wards we have in AMAC. If you have not benefitted, ask questions in your community, someone must have benefited.
“Every family in AMAC has about 5 graduates. If you multiply that, you will see we have millions of graduates. There is no way the federal government will employ everyone. The truth is that we cannot employ everyone too. That’s 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, welder, barbing, ICT, among others. We then attached them to professionals and organizations, where they were trained.
“We will give them starter packs to start practicing what they trained on. Gone are the days were our items will end up being sold at markets. Going forward, we will inspect and monitor the trainees to ensure they utilize 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 month. Times it by 30. That’s N300,000 per month. Many civil servants are not making up to that.”
Showing appreciation, some of the beneficiaries, including Mary Bala, Juliet Justine and Umezuruike David, said they have gained enough knowledge to stand on their own.
