I Partnered With NDDC To Empower 500 Cross River Youths – Sen Ekpenyong

Senator Asuquo Ekpeyong, representing Cross River South Senatorial District and chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has explained why he collaborated with the NDDC to empower hundreds of youths in Cross River State with mini buses, tricycles and business grants.

The lawmaker gave the explanation in an interaction with journalists after distributing the empowerment items at the U.J. Esuene Sports Stadium in Calabar over the weekend.

Ekpeyong, who distributed 150 minibuses and 200 tricycles and cash grants of N250,000 to 500 beneficiaries during the exercise, said the intervention was aimed at helping the beneficiaries build sustainable businesses and achieve self-reliance and even become employers of labour.

He noted that the initiative also included skills training for young men and women.

“We are here to train our young men and women on skills and positions, we are here to give grants for young men and women to start up businesses,” he said.

“We are here to also empower our people with capital items, from minibuses to kekenapep.”

The senator clarified that the project was not executed alone but in partnership with federal agencies. “Because I didn’t do this by myself, it was done by MDAs at the federal level.

They have come together, we’ve been able to source these capital items for our constituents here in the South Senatorial District,” he said.

He listed the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria among the participating agencies.

Urging beneficiaries not to sell the items, Ekpeyong pleaded, “I plead with you, that as you go home, please do not sell these capital items. Do not kill the goose that will lay the golden egg.

“Maintain that goose and keep on extracting the golden egg every morning.” He added that retaining and maintaining the items would sustain families “for months and years to come,” unlike a one-time sale.

He described the distribution as “the beginning of several empowerment programmes that we will continue to do, all made possible by the President, by the Governor, and the various leaders that we have in this country.”

Ekpeyong also called on residents to “continue to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as we go into the elections, because he has made this possible and will make a lot more possible in our wonderful state.”

Earlier, NDDC Director of Commercial and Industrialisation, Barr. Linda Okara, stated that beneficiaries were selected through stakeholder recommendations to ensure transparency.