by Nurat Uthman
The Federal Government has given a grant of N500,000 each to 120 participants of its “Unlock Training Programme” organized by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, Madam Abiola Arogundade.
At the grant award ceremony which had several ministers and top presidential aides in attendance on Saturday in Abuja, Arogundade said deserving participants will also be given Solar Kiosks as well as a Certificate of Completion.
According to her, the idea is to help expand employment and ensure optimum growth of the economy.
She said the solar kiosks are designed for hairdressing, catering and food vending and some for general purposes, adding that aside from the aforementioned professional uses, the kiosks are also equipped with sockets for phone charging and spaces for Points of Sales POS terminals and other businesses.
Arogundade said; “The Unlock Training Programme was the outcome of a six-week Campaign initiated by my office during which Nigerian youths were asked to record and submit a one-minute video on their current technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills, what their plans are for the future on such skills and how they want government to assist them achieve their plans. The purpose was to boost their potentials for economic development.
“At the end of that campaign, we trained about 10,000 participants in a 10-day intensive training session on how to write and execute Business Plans.
“During the programme, both online and physical participants were trained on the components of a good Business Plan including Executive Summary, Business Overview and Marketing Strategies, Pricing, Money Management and Risks, among others.
“After the course, participants were asked to write and submit Business Plans. Today, we are giving out N500,000 grants each to 120 winners with the best Business Plans.
“We are also giving out honourary awards to 80 persons seen to be doing very well in their Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship skills but need support to upscale their businesses.
We also promised to give Certificates of Completion to all participants who completed the training and to assist participants, especially new start-ups, to register their companies. Today, we are here to fulfill those promises”.
She said Staff of the Corporate Affairs Commission were on hand to issue incorporation certificates to the participants, while staff of a commercial bank were also on ground to credit the accounts of beneficiaries.
“I am here to assure you that the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is thinking about you, not just because of this programme but because of the numerous initiatives he is creating across the country to promote technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills.
“An example of this is the inclusion of technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills in the Students Loans, inauguration of Skills Council in the Presidency, Human Capital Development Council, in collaboration with the Governors under the National Economic Council, SUPA (Skill-Up Artisans), ITF and numerous others.
“We will like to also say that this is one of our many programmes in supporting skills and enterprise and we intend to continue to do so in our office. So if you are not a winner today, please continue to apply to participate in our future programmes”, she added.
