Over 400 persons have been empowered in a week-long programme sponsored by a former Councillor from Oriade Local Government Area of Lagos State, Rita Arabome. The empowerement was aimed at reducing youth unemployment in the community and the nation at large.
Held in conjunction with Bank of Industry (BoI), those empowered, who came from both Oriade and Amuwo Odofin Local Council, comprised women and youths, who she said were specifically targeted because they were not adequately catered for in the scheme of things.
They were taught various soft skills such as bead making, soap making, small chops, cosmetics, agriculture, dettol making and others that can lift them out of their present state and develop the country.
Arabome said her passion for the less privileged spurred her to embark on the empowerment programme as it was a follow up to her earlier empowerment programme held for people in her ward, E1, Maza-maza area of Satellite Town, Lagos State.
She said: “My calling in life when I asked God was to be a job creator and I feel nothing should stop an able bodied man or woman from doing something out of their talents. So, I feel people should have something doing no matter how small and we don’t really need to rely on the government so much like a lot of people do, who just sit down without having anything going on and just roam about. I have this calling for women and youth to empower them.
“When I did it at my Ward in 2010 , it was very successful, and it has been on my mind ever since I left office almost four years ago that I need to do something for this local government and Amuwo Odofin as a Federal Consistency. I divided each of the two local governments into four zones each so that we can cover all the areas there, which made the training to be done in eight different places and on different days,”she said.
She said the support from the two local government chairmen encouraged her to reach more people.
Arabome said collaboration with the BoI was encouraging as it came with their grant of N50,000, without collateral to be paid back in six months.
A beneficiary, Mrs Victoria Lawal said the training was interesting as they were taught how to make different products such as liquid detergents, soaps, dettols and others which they can use to lift themselves economically. She thanked the organiser on the initiative.