FG Restates Commitment to Lift 100 Million Nigerians Out of Poverty

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

The federal government has vowed not to relent in its efforts to ensure that 100 million Nigerians are lifted out of poverty.

The Director General of National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, gave the assurance yesterday while speaking at the commencement of a three months training organised for 30 unemployed women in Lokoja. The training would focus on wig, turban and decorative paint making in order to make them self-reliant.

The Director General who was represented by Mrs. Chima Catherine, from the NDE headquarters, Abuja, said the federal government would remain committed to ensuring that the vision “Job for all” becomes a reality in no distant time.

Fikpo drew the attention of the trainees to the saying that, “skills acquisition and hard work are the beginning of riches”

In his remarks, the Kogi State Coordinator of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Zakari assured that the training would certainly add value to the beneficiaries respective homes and society at large.

He congratulated them for the opportunity to lift them out of poverty and enjoined them to utilise the rare privileged.

The Chairperson of Nigerian League of Women Voters, Aisha Mayomi Isa in her remark at the event, expressed joy over the gender sensitivity displaced by the NDE and its women friendliness.

She said the NDE had done its part by creating a special unit, Women Employment Branch (WEB), challenging the trainees to take their destinies in their hands in order to justify government’s efforts to make them become employers of labour after the training.

Mrs. Alice Asima who also spoke on behalf of the trainees, thanked the NDE for considering them to benefit from its intervention strategies towards ameliorating the sufferings of the downtrodden women in Kogi.

In a related development, the NDE has also flagged off a week long training for 110 aspiring entrepreneurs in Kogi state.

The participants are to benefit from the entrepreneurship skills training in capacity building of the directorate.

They were drawn from the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi state. The gesture, according to the NDE, was aimed at tackling the unemployment challenge in the state.