•Women receive Gov Ganduje’s life-changing skills programme as tea vendors, others get trade-enhancement packs
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has stepped up efforts at empowering different segments of people in Kano State. Over the last few weeks, he has been supporting many to improve their trades and businesses.
Recently, hundreds of women in Kano benefitted from the governor’s gestures. About 5,200 of them were trained for six weeks in various trades and, afterwards, were given start-up capital amounting to N10,000 each.
The ceremony, which held at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano, was graced by several personalities, including the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Yusuf Atta, and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the event, Ganduje stated that he would support the women’s efforts by buying out all their produce, pledging to send a total of N50 million worth of assorted made-in-Kano goods to the internally displaced persons camps in the North-East.
He also announced plans to set up a special market for the sale of products produced by the women of Kano, as part of efforts to boost he economy and motivate their trade.
The women, Daily Sun learnt, were trained in 24 trades, including food processing, cosmetics and liquid soap, catering and home management.
Ganduje recalled that his administration had trained 200 women in ICT, 100 in video coverage and photography, and 50 in automobile engineering as well as 1,136 traditional birth attendants, with 50 others sent to Turkey to improve on their knowledge of artificial insemination.
He appealed to the women to shun drugs and stay focused as good mothers, maintaining that his administration was doing everything possible to reach every one of them in the state.
Daily Sun further learnt that one of the challenges confronting the beneficiaries was how to register their products. One of the beneficiaries, Hajia Hawa Fagge, noted that the process might be difficult for them given their limited knowledge.
Her position was corroborated by the representatives of the trainers/facilitators, Dr. Maria Waziri and Hajia Zarah Mohammed. The duo urged the state government to help the women to obtain NAFDAC registration and approval for their products.
Two days after the outing, the state government moved to empower tea sellers, aka Mai Shayi, in the state. A total of 5,200 of them were given various empowerment packages worth over N208 million.
The tea sellers were provided with stoves, cartons of noodles, powdered milk, tea bags, crates of eggs, cups, sugar, spaghetti and loaves of bread, among other items, to enable them start tea-selling business.
Interestingly, the tea sellers in the state occupy a valued rank in the scheme of things as their roadside outlets double as hubs of political meetings and discussions.
Dr. Abu Fagge of Bayero University, Kano, while speaking at the event, counselled the tea sellers to appreciate the gesture by rewarding the governor with their support during the next election.
He tasked them to make the best use of the opportunity to develop their businesses, urging them to grow to become car and house owners from selling tea to the public.
He further appealed to them to recruit, train and promote others in their communities, thereby helping the state government to create jobs for the people
Ganduje described the event as a milestone, saying that it was the first of its kind in the state even as he expressed optimism that the gesture would go a long way in boosting the economy and enhancing the finances of the families of the beneficiaries.
“We are empowering you to improve sanitation in your services; we are empowering you to improve the nutritional value of your services; we are empowering you because of the multiplier effects of this kind of programme.
“Tea sellers are increasing in number and we need to encourage them. We are registering all of them. We are getting their telephone numbers. We are doing this so that we don’t have fake tea sellers,” he said.
The governor promised to patronise them and urged them to observe the highest level of hygiene in their business.
“We urge you to develop personal hygiene. Cut your fingernails; use hand gloves while serving your customers; keep your clothes clean; keep your business environment neat and wash your cups immediately after serving your customers. Don’t laugh or talk while preparing tea for your customers so that your saliva does not drop inside the cup, and to avoid transmission of disease.
“Don’t put hard drugs in your tea because I know some irresponsible youths may ask you to mix them with drugs. Don’t do so because it is not good,” he said.
The Kano State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, Alhaji Murtala Sule Garo, disclosed that the various empowerment programmes by the present administration had ensured the training of over 100,000 youths in various trades across the state. He urged the beneficiaries to utilise the package judiciously for the purposes they were meant.