Mrs Salamatu Sabo, the wife of the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, FCT, has organised a three-day training workshop on skill acquisition for women and youths in the area.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participants were given N20, 000. each to start business and trained in different skills, including soap making, perfume making, tailoring and make-up among others.
Speaking at the training workshop, Salamatu said that the initiative was aimed at engaging women and youths of the area to be self-reliant and useful to the society.
According to her, the empowerment programme has been designed to equip women and youths who are widows, job seekers and unemployed in Kuje with the knowledge and skills needed to support their families.
She said that her target was to have as many as 250 participants at the first edition of the empowerment after which some remote communities would also be captured.
“Our goal also is to empower Kuje women and youths to enable them achieve their individual potentials and contribute to the economy.
“As you know it is said the ‘idle mind is the devils workshop ‘ so when an individual is busy, he will not have time for negative habits that destroy their lives.
“Young people can offer the much needed human capital to speed up economic growth and foster sustainability in any locality and country,” she said.
According to her, this initiative is paramount to women in the area and has also set an agenda to train women in some skills so that they will be self- reliant.
“The programme marks the beginning of the emancipation of women and youths in Kuje Area Council from poverty, lack and deprivation.
“It will also afford women the opportunity to acquire some skills and at the end, they will put their knowledge into practice.
“This will reduce the incidence of poverty and lack among women and youths in the area council; it is a great opportunity that must be taken seriously,” she said.
She, however, encouraged the women to take the programme seriously as it would go a long way to eliminate issues of broken homes caused by poverty.
Salamatu also urged the participants, to extend the knowledge acquired from the three-day training exercise to their children for proper upbringing.
Mrs Hajara Abu, speaking on behalf of other participants thanked the chairman’s wife, saying that the workshop was a good development as it would go a long way to keep the women meaningfully engaged.
“I am very happy with this programme because I can now have something to fall back on even now that things are difficult.
“I am always asking my husband for money to buy little things; but now I should be able to contribute meaningfully to the family,’’ she said. (NAN)
