By Henry Uche, Lagos
In a bid to trim down the rising unemployment in the country, Def World Group has set out to train and empower young people in different crafts in Lagos to be self-reliant, as well as offers to partner Micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to boost business returns.
At the launch of its Lagos branch, the Group General Manager of the company, Michael Mba Ifenkwe while addressing reporters said that the skills acquisition training which includes: tailoring, photography, computer operations, hairstyling, agro-businesses and others, on different durations and minimal cost would go long way to boost Nigeria economy hence people are engaged in productive ventures.
According to him, participants would be empowered with seed cash of N50,000 to N1 million to become self-reliant. ‘We are in Lagos to replicate and even do more than what we have done in other states of the federation,’ he said.
‘We offer logistics, thrift, loans, restaurant, agro and rides services. We already have over 600 direct employees and we are ready to employ more people starting from Lagos. But we are not only employing people to pay them salaries, we are more interested in impacting skills (the required knowledge) young people need to be economically independent.
‘We want to ameliorate the plight of people by engaging them in various businesses, so we offer a new saving scheme where anyone can choose a platform and thrift and do it for 93 days and withdraw, upon withdrawal the investors have one per cent (1%) as the interest of all his or her savings.’
He added that anyone can partner with Def with N500,000 to 100 million and receives four per cent (4%) interest on a monthly basis and still have his cash deposit at the end of the contract.
‘We want to reduce the agony in the land that is why we call on Micro, small and medium enterprises to save with us, and gain numerous benefits, we are deploying push strategy to get the work done. We also call the Lagos State governor to do more by creating the much needed friendly environment for businesses to thrive.
‘We need sound policies and programmes, infrastructure – good roads network, electricity supply and ensure the security of life and property are guaranteed for investments to yield desired returns,’ he implored.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Group, Bright Tony Ezeigbo, affirmed that soon Def World would be a household brand by the time the company offers second -to- none business products and services to every partner.
‘Through our excellent services, we dish out to our strategic partners and stakeholders, we shall make Def a choice place for people to invest their time, energy, cash and other resources and as our business cut across different sectors.’
The CEO maintained that Agro businesses remains the main focus of Def noting that ‘we rear snails, fish, poultry, cow breeding and others in a very organised manner, our target is to establish 30 breaches in Lagos, that means, we would be creating more jobs and adding to the GDP of the state and the nation at large.’
He called on people with financial resources looking for who would bankroll same to come up for partnership, saying that the company has sound personnel with feasible and viable business ideas to turn cash into multiple streams of income.
‘Def is open to partner with anyone who has money but lacks business acumen, for a cross-fertilisation of ideas to put the cash in productive ventures, this would make the little money in our hands useful and multiple and as a matter of fact, it would curb the effects of idleness among young people,’ he added.