Tag: Lagos empowers

By Sherifdeen Amusa and Naimat Dauda

The Lagos State Government has empowered 200 indigents’ parents and guardians of out of school children in the state.

This, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Mrs Bolaji Dada, said it’s to strengthen its zero tolerance towards out-of-school children.

The empowerment followed a three-week skills acquisition training and empowerment programme by the ministry in collaboration with the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB).

She said the training marks the beginning of new opportunities for the beneficiaries.

She added that irrespective of the skills learnt, beneficiaries were given comprehensive entrepreneurial skills ranging from marketing gimmicks, business strategies, sources of financing, health insurance and orientation on Human Papillonia Virus (HPV).

She also said that a similar initiative is being done for would be pensioners to sustain themselves after retirement from public service.

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“We have Women Development Centre in Agege where retiring civil servants are being trained to sustain themselves after retirement”.

Mrs Dada appreciated Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his passion towards eradicating poverty in the state and making women financially empowered.

Chairman of LASUBEB, Dr Hakeem Shittu, said empowering the parents of out of school children was necessitated by their inability to sustain sending their children to school after the first incentives they gave those children.

“We discovered that after being in school, if we do not empower their parents, they will be out of school because their parents cannot afford to continue sending them to school. To address this, we have launched a program to empower parents, ensuring they have the resources needed to keep their children in school,” he said.

Shittu added that necessary checks were done to ascertain that the beneficiaries were deserving of the programme.

“Additionally, we conduct background checks on applicants to ensure they are serious and in genuine need of this program, which is completely free,” he added.

National Programme Officer of United Nations Women in Nigeria, Patience Ekeoba, said economic empowerment is the heart of all development and empowering a woman is akin to empowering a nation.

While urging the beneficiaries to utilise the skills, Ekeoba said the UN in partnership with WAPA would see to the betterment of the lives of women and girls in Lagos.

A beneficiary, Ibikunle Elizabeth, said she would not only make better use of the skills learnt but ensure she passed it down to her generation.

Another beneficiary, Ganiyat Ogunleye, who lauded the initiative, said she had started earning from the training before completing the training.

The Lagos State Government has empowered 13,500 residents through its Short Term Skill Acquisition Programme.

The four-week programme is an empowerment scheme with the goal of alleviating the challenges faced by indigent residents through skill acquisition and sundry vocational trainings.

Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Bolaji Dada, said this during the ongoing Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the first year anniversary of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second term in office at Alausa, Ikeja.

She said beneficiaries are residents – vulnerable women particularly those in rural communities, parents of out of school children, artisans, retirees, faith based groups, etc. – who were all trained in various vocations of their interest to enable them take care of their families and contribute meaningfully in the society thereby reducing unemployment .

Mrs Dada said: “In order to promote women focused programmes through our various initiatives as well as delivering on our mandates on intervention programmes, citizens are trained and supported with startup packs in different skills of their choice.

“There are 19 Skills Acquisition Centres across three Senatorial Districts of the state with 20 vocation taught-courses ranging from hair and wig making, barbing, soap, pomade, insecticide production, tie & dye, cake, snacks and beverages production etc., and our courses are handled by professional instructors.

“The locations of the centres are in IBILE – Isheri Olowora, Badagry Division, Ikeja, Lagos Island and Epe-Division – and you can walk in and make inquiries.”

According to her, the Poverty Alleviation Department of the Ministry has well over 2,000 beneficiaries empowered through the Micro Enterprises Support Initiative programme.

She said the MWAPA has aligned programmes with the T.H.E.M.E.S.+ Agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration to promote social inclusion by ensuring that no one is left out in the economic cold.

“Within departments/units of the ministry, we have effectively delivered on various poverty alleviation programmes, women focused programmes, gender based Violence advocacy Programme, Skills Acquisitions Programmes, Non-Governmental Organisation sensitisation and many others.

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“Let me reemphasise here that all our programmes/vocations are obtained for FREE,” Dada said.

In all, the commissioner also said the ministry was able to record 4,592 students graduands in the period under review while over 16,900 students also graduated specifically from 20 Skills Acquisition Centres in Lagos.

Furthermore, the ministry, she said, has continued to provide enabling environment for all students as the centres are well equipped with modern equipment to ensure the students thrive in their vocations.

Mrs Dada said the ministry had trained 450 women on cassava planting, cultivation process, branding and processing while another 450 received training in snailery, as well as cucumber and watermelon production.

In another capacity building training, “300 women were trained in Catfish Rearing and marketing during a collaboration with GIZ/Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research.

“We will continue to encourage partnership/synergy, we’re leveraging on various Civil Societies bodies, United Nations, MDAs such as Ministry of Health for medical screenings/ productive training and awareness programme of our women because we believe that good health is good wealth,” she said.