It was a moment of joy and jubilation as officials of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) broke the news of disbursement of starter packs worth millions of Naira to the 36 graduate-trainees of NDE after completing thier vocational training in various aspects in Calabar, Cross River State.
The trainees, therefore, pledged to maximally use the skills acquired after the three-month rigorous training organised by the Directorate under the community based training scheme (CBTS) of the federal government.
Disbursing the empowerement kits to the benefiaries at the Conference Hall of the Federal Secretariat in Calabar at the weekend, director-general of NDE, Ahaji Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, charged them not to sell the starter packs but put them to proper use to better their lots.
The NDE DG stressed that the initiative was aimed at empowering unemployed youths with skills that can make them become self-reliant and reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
The starter packs included power generator, electrical installations, barbing tools, vulcanizing machine, shoe-making equipment, fashion designing and gathering equipment.
Representing the NDE director-general, the State coordinator of the Directorate, Mr. Udam Gabriel, also advised the trainees not to sell the starter packs but make use of them to change thier economic fortunes.
The DG averred that the items should be seen as items given to them in fulfilment of the completion of the community based training scheme undertaken by NDE to tackle the rate of unemployment, which he said, if not tackled is likely to escalate at an alarming rate.
He said that following the NDE’s determination to fight unemployment, it has been training youths and women in rural areas in various vocational skills, utilizing informal training outlets.
One of the trainees, Mr Emmanuel David, who spoke on behalf of other beneficiaries, lauded the federal government for initiating the scheme, stressing that items worth about N130,000 in form of a loan, which will be defrayed with an interest of nine per cent at N4,000 monthly payment, could be paid back by the benefiaries because they were ready to work hard.
“To defray the debt of N130,000 within a period of three years should not be a problem. I promise to work very hard to ensure that the money can be repaid back to my creditors.
“I promise to re-double my effort in the loan repayment. With hardwork and sincererity, anybody who got the loan can afford to do repayment,” David stated.
