National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has granted loans worth over N85 million to its graduated trainees under the Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS).
The loan facilities which consist of basic working tools and cash components were to be disbursed to the 494 beneficiaries in the six geo-political zones across the country. The loan disbursement is being executed under NDE Special Public Works (SPW) programme.
The directorate, in November 2022, had concluded three months EBTS skills training for 1,110 unemployed youths in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja at 30 participants per state.
According to the Director General, Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, NDE is proposing to empower 962 graduated trainees out of the 1,110 participants but could only resettle 494 due to budgetary constraints. He said the other 470 graduated trainees will be empowered at future date.
The basic objective of the loan disbursement exercise, according to him, is to create jobs, especially self-employment for the trained participants and help them become self-reliant.
“The mandate of the directorate is to fight mass unemployment in the country by creating jobs through skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development. NDE will not stop at training willing Nigerians but will also ensure the trained participants are well established and are out of the unemployment market,” he said.
He added that the EBTS loan disbursement exercise will create pool of entrepreneurs that will soon become employers of labour in Nigeria.
Throwing more light on the loan disbursement and empowerment exercise, the for Special Public Works Programme Director, Olaomi Roseline Silvia, said the loan disbursement will cover 19 states from the six geo-political zones, including Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Kebbi.
She said 26 people per state are to benefit from the phase one empowerment exercise using the 50 per cent budget released.
EBTS is one of the popular schemes of the SPW programme of the NDE. It is designed to train unemployed persons to acquire professional skills in environmental beautification, sanitation and protection of environment.
The concept also includes beautification of streets, construction of parks, and gardens, tree planting, production of blocks, interlocking stones, tiling works and plaster of paris (POP).
According to Abubakar Umar, a beneficiary in Ilorin, Kwara State, the NDE loan disbursement initiative is bringing a great relief to him and his family, especially his father, who has been so concerned over how to raise capital to start his POP business.
The director general said NDE is creating decent sustainable jobs through training to create wealth and reduce restiveness among the unemployed youths of the country.