The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Imo has begun the training of 30 women on how to produce decorative paint, wigs and hair turban (popularly known as head gear).
Malam Abubakar Nuhu-Fikpo, the Director-General of the NDE, who said this while opening the five-day training in Owerri on Wednesday, added that the trainees were selected from the 27 local council areas of the state.
Nuhu-Fikpo, represented by the NDE’s Coordinator in Imo, Mrs Ngozi Ihenacho, added that the trainees would receive some stipend for transportation and other logistics.
He also said that a business start-up grant of N25,000 would be provided for each trainee to encourage them to become self-reliant and become employers of labour.
He urged the beneficiaries to take full advantage of the training by cooperating with the trainers and ensuring that they practised what they would be taught.
“The directorate has created the Women Employment Branch (WEB) as an implementation strategy, where relevant skills and programmes that are more impactful to women are targeted and executed.
“Today, out of every 10 women, eight put on either wigs or head gears and this is why we have identified this as an area that we can invest in. On this note, I hereby flag off this training,” he said.
Speaking, Mr Sunday Apakasa, the Director of the NDE’s Department of Small Scale Enterprises (SSE), said that the training was an evidence that the NDE was translating its policy into action.
Represented by Mr Kelvin Onuigbo, a senior member of staff of the SSE Department, Apakasa urged the trainees to be put their minds to the training so as to reap the full benefits of the training.
One of the trainees, Mrs Happiness Boniface, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for the initiative and prayed God to grant the trainer’s knowledge that would enable them impart the right skills to the beneficiaries. (NAN)