The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) this week released information on the numerical impact of its skills acquisition programme among youths and women in Kaduna state in 2020.
According to the State Coordinator, Sani Maiwada, 1,680 youths, and women were trained in various vocational skills and empowered by the agency to help reduce unemployment and poverty among the citizenry.
Maiwada who gave the figure during an interview with Journalists in Kaduna stated that 690 participants, 30 from each of the 23 local government areas in the state were trained on carpentry, welding, tailoring, among other skills, while 460 women underwent training in cosmetology.
“NDE would pay the 690 participants stipends for transportation; another 460 women would be trained on all aspects of cosmetology which will last for two weeks,” he added.
Maiwada explained that the Directorate’s Micro Enterprise Enhancement Scheme (MEES) had also empowered 480 women in micro businesses and offered each of them N10,000 soft loan to boost their businesses.
He noted that most of the beneficiaries of the soft loan were women running petty businesses with N5,000 capital or less, like akara and zobo sellers, adding that a total of N4.8 million was expended.
The state coordinator added that 50 participants selected from Soba LGA are also undergoing a three months empowerment training through the NDE’s School on Wheels program.
“These are the activities and empowerment program we had from January 2020 till date; hopefully we shall empower more youths and women under our various departments in the directorate,” he said.
