By Imelda Osayande
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has begun training of 50 people in Edo to enhance their business proficiency and enable them to create more employment opportunities.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on Monday in Benin, the NDE Director-General, Malam Abubakar Fikpo, said the training was aimed at continuously reducing the high rate of unemployment in the country.
Fikpo, represented by the State Coordinator, Mr Solomon Edobor, said the directorate had trained 850 people on Enterprise and Finance Clinic through its Small Scale Enterprise within the 17 southern states of the federation.
He further said that the objectives of the clinic included sensitising the participants to the reality in the Nigerian labour market.
The director general said that NDE would encourage the people to opt for self-employment as a career path.
He said that the clinic would counsel participants to choose the type of businesses that fitted their interests and also provide skills and competences for business ideas for existing business owners.
The NDE boss noted that resource persons in the clinic would mentor participants to implement feasible business plans that had the capability of being funded by financial institutions.
He said the directorate would link the participants with relevant stakeholders having the wherewithal to assist them in funding their viable projects.
The representative of the small scale enterprise, Mrs Ngozi Elochukwu, said that the programme would enhance entrepreneurship within the economy. (NAN)
