Niger NGO empowers 500 youths, women

Not less than 500 youths and women have benefited from the skills acquisition empowerment programme in Ijah, Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State from a Non-Governmental Organisation.

The training which was coordinated by Arewa Transformation Empowerment Initiative (ATEI), an NGO, was sponsored by the State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaji Musa Ijah, said on Sunday that the gesture is to reduce idleness amongst the youths in the society.

Accordingly, he said “the motive is to reduce youth restiveness and to reposition their minds for them to be able to stand on their own”.

He disclosed that the participants were trained on beads making, liquid soap, air freshener, satellite installation, tailoring, and generator repairs.

Others are juice making, mobile phone repairing, barbing, shoe making, Vaseline making and computer engineering.

According to him, the initiative cuts across the three zones in Tafa Local Government Area, adding that “139 graduands that performed excellently during the training have been empowered with starter kits and given capital”.

He assured that government would collaborate with ATEI to provide a place for the trainees to exhibit the products that would attract buyers.

Ijah called on the beneficiaries to make use of the opportunity to become self-reliant so as to reduce the unemployment in the state.

Earlier, Alhaji Sheu Bwari, Coordinator, ATEI, disclosed that the NGO since inception in 2013 had trained 10,000 women and youths on entrepreneurship skills acquisition.

Bwari said ATEI will continue to train and to empower youths in diverse skills to arrest youth restiveness in the country.

A beneficiary, Juliet Jezhi, said: “I have learned different skills and I urged those yet to enroll to do so to become self-reliant”.