By Ayo Alonge
The leadership of Yoruba Professionals Foundation (YPF) and Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO) have kick-started an entrepreneurial project aimed at youth empowerment, through industrialisation and agriculture.
Done in partnership with an indigenous paint manufacturing company, Comfort Paints Propman Ltd, the training was on advanced paint production and application, with the trainees exposed to how to, on a commercial level, produce over 20 types of paints.
Aside being trained on paint production, the trainees were also introduced to a three-hour session on Customers Relations and Management, in a bid to drive business expansion and profit maximisation.
Speaking during the grand finale of the training and products exhibition session, a retired professor of Romantics and Comparative Literature, Ade Kukoyi, who represented the leader of IOO, Professor Banji Akintoye, at the event, said the programme, as designed by the YPF, is geared towards reviving the industrialisation policy of late Obafemi Awolowo in Western Nigeria.
Kukoyi said “my generation is tired already, so we are encouraging the younger generation to keep on with the battle. As you can see, the Industrialisation plans of YPF are about sciences, technology and innovation.”
In his remarks, the Founder and President of YPF, Maxwell Adeleye, said: “At our maiden edition, in December 2020, we trained about 50 youths on smart homes automation and solar technology. Today, they are thriving. In January 2021, we trained 40 youths on various forms of accounting technology and digital marketing. The trainees are now in town excelling.”
The attendees, however, thanked the organisers for the gesture.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, one of the trainees, Hakeem Adebanjo, thanked the leadership of IOO and YPF for giving beneficiaries what he described as a “life-changing opportunity”.