MORE ROOM IN THE ARK

 Lagos State government’s effort at empowering MSMEs operatives is paying off, argues Tayo Ogunbiyi

The commitment of the Lagos State Government under the leadership of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu toward empowering more Lagosians has been further strengthened with programmes such as the Jobs Initiatives Lagos (JIL), Eko Digital Skills, Adult Literacy Education, Vocational Training, Quarterly Mega Empowerment Programme and LSETF Funding Initiatives, among others.

The Sanwo-Olu administration is embarking on several intervention programmes to empower the youths, women and indigent citizens in tandem with its vision of attaining a ‘Greater Lagos’.

In order to sustain the momentum in its skill acquisition centers, the government has completed the upgrading of most of its vocational training centers to world-class standards.

 It has also equipped those centers with additional working tools to allow for expansion and more enrollment.

Over 75,000 trainees have graduated from the state’s 19 vocation centers in the last four and a half years. 

Recently, two senior citizens, Mrs. Majekodunmi Bolanle (66) and Mrs. Kuburat Animashaun (64) were among the 4,592 trainees that graduated in the Lagos State Government empowerment program held at the LTV Blue Roof, Agidingbi, Ikeja.

The graduates took vocational training in the skill development centres across the state. The course fees were borne by the government.

The programme, a brainchild of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), offers courses such as photography, textile making, catering and hotel management, hairdressing, fashion designing, welding, aluminum fabrication, leather work, furniture and woodwork, among others.

Speaking at the event, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the initiative was targeted at empowering the grassroots, while giving young people an opportunity to discover their innate potential and to be economically engaged.

Efforts are constantly made to develop the skills of graduates of the Centres. Lately, 2,000 tradesmen and artisans were reskilled through the re-skilling programme developed to equip them towards becoming 21st-century compliant.

In the same vein, over 10,050 rural women received intensive training in boosting outputs in agricultural production and giving the beneficiaries equal access to markets.

Largely, the government has prioritized intervention programmes that support women in achieving gender equality, self-reliance, skill balance, inclusion in social security systems and stable means of livelihood. To this end, a series of programmes and activities aimed at improving the status of women in Lagos and making them economically independent have been organised by the government.

In order to increase the total GDP for income generation, financial growth and stability, the government embarked on supporting women through direct cash intervention and capacity building.

Over 27,050 women have benefitted from the state’s agricultural training for rural women on cultivation of vegetables, cassava planting and cultivation, garri processing and other arable crops.

Similarly, 250 women were empowered through a workshop on intercrop of maize and cassava with demonstration plots for practical knowledge.

Widows and other vulnerable women are equally not left out in the scheme, as they have been empowered with working tools such as sewing machines, hairdryers and clippers, pepper grinding machines, generators and popcorn making machines.

Similarly, over 200 household heads for orphans and vulnerable children were empowered with 76 grinding machines, 69 sewing machines, 10 tools, 10 deep freezers, 15 hair-drying machines, 10 braving equipment and seven ovens, among others.

In Lagos, unemployed youths fall into various categories viz employable and unemployable degree holders, medium level education certificate holders, school certificate holders and drop outs and those who never made it beyond primary schools.

Cheerfully, the various interventions of the government take cognisance of this categorization. For instance, to prepare graduates for life after school, the Ready-Set-Work was launched.

 It is an entrepreneurial and employability training programme aimed at ensuring that every student who graduates from any tertiary institution in Lagos has knowledge, skills, and attitude required to gain employment upon graduation. Thousands of graduates have been empowered from the scheme.

Similarly, the CodeLagos scheme, aimed at making coding education and technology accessible to Lagosians, principally targets the youth, and it holds across the six Educational Districts of the State with a total of 611 facilitators and over 27,000 participants.

For young residents with ingenious business ideas, the LSETF comes handy with its three in one programme. It comprises access to quick and affordable loans for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to start up, build, expand and create wealth and employment for the residents. From 2019 till date, over 15,000 residents have been empowered through the Fund.

The government’s efforts at empowering MSMEs operatives are paying off. The State was declared as the ‘Best State Supporting Artisans’ in the Federation at a programme organized by Global Sight Services Limited in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment and the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises of Nigerian [SMEDAN].

In order to expand its scope, the Sanwo-Olu administration launched the LSETF “W” Initiative to help women birth their entrepreneurial dreams into reality. Governor Sanwo-Olu has presented a cheque to over 2,500 female beneficiaries of the ‘W’ initiative.

In partnership with Access Bank, up to Five Million Naira can be obtained through the initiative, which allows more women to come into the financial inclusion net and improve their businesses.

Similarly, in a bid to help businesses recover from COVID-19, a N5 Billion “Lagos Economic Acceleration Programme (LSETF-LEAP)” was unveiled. The LSETF-LEAP is a sector-specific intervention programme aimed at supporting MSMEs businesses, driving growth and enabling job creation opportunities across targeted sectors that have been severely affected by the pandemic.

The programme has assisted in providing access to affordable finance at a single-digit interest rate, enhancing capacity building, fostering market linkages and leverage business expansion opportunities for its beneficiaries. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises applicants are to visit the LSETF website: www.lsetf.ng to apply.

Though the task of tackling poverty and unemployment might seem herculean, the Sanwo-Olu administration has demonstrated, through its numerous creative initiatives, that with the required will both monsters could be overcome.

With a comatose global economy and frightening unemployment statistics, we cannot afford to take the issue of wealth creation lightly. Therefore, all stakeholders must join hands with the government to come up with more ingenious means of wealth creation.

Ogunbiyi is Director (Features), Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja