3,113 Kaduna Women Get Skills, Start-up Support To Boost Livelihoods

A total of 3,113 women in Kaduna State have acquired vocational skills and received start-up materials to establish their businesses.

The initiative is designed to improve their means of livelihoods under a three-year economic empowerment project implemented by the Jennifer Etuh Foundation.

The beneficiaries were trained in various skills, including tailoring, shoemaking, hairdressing, cake making, manicure and pedicure, as well as vertical sack farming in six local government areas.

The initiative, known as the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) Project, was concluded at a close-out in Kaduna, with the beneficiaries receiving certificates and start-up materials to help them translate their newly acquired skills into income-generating ventures.

At the event, the programme manager of Jennifer Etuh Foundation, Joseph Otu, said the project had helped women establish businesses and farms within their homes, contributing to increased household income.

Otu said the foundation implemented the three-year initiative in collaboration with other organisations, with funding support from Bayer Foundation, to equip over 3,000 women with practical skills and improve their economic independence.

He added that the programme started in Kaura and Jema’a local government areas before extending to Makarfi, Sabon Gari, Zaria, Chikun and Kaduna South.

Also speaking, the Project Supervisor, Mrs Etimbuk Udoette, said the impact of the initiative went beyond the number of women trained, noting that beneficiaries were already applying their skills to productive activities.

She said some of the women had started harvesting and selling crops from their vertical sack farms, while others were using their vocational skills to produce goods for commercial purposes.

The project supervisor encouraged the beneficiaries to remain consistent, continue developing their skills, and train others in their communities, adding that the foundation would support efforts to organise them into cooperatives to ensure continued access to inputs and other assistance.

Earlier in his remarks, the Director of Innovation and Skills Development in the Kaduna State Ministry of Business, Innovation and Technology, Engr. Noel Bali, commended the foundation for complementing the state government’s efforts to expand vocational skills development.

Bali said the state government had established three skills development centres in Rigachikun, Samaru Kataf and Soba, where residents could access free vocational training and internationally recognised certification under the National Skills Qualifications Framework.

Also, the Council Secretary of Chikun Chiefdom, Sunday Garba Makama, who represented the Esu Chikun, said the project had provided women with practical tools to tackle poverty, hunger and unemployment.

Some of the beneficiaries, Blessing Shuaibu and Zainab Yasim, expressed appreciation to the Jennifer Etuh Foundation and its partners for the opportunity to acquire new skills.