The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says it has disbursed N85 million as loan to 494 beneficiaries under its Environmental Beautification Training Scheme (EBTS).
The Director-General of the agency, Malam Abubakar Fikpo, disclosed this in a statement signed by the Head of Public Relations of the organisation, Mr Israel Adekitan, and made available in Abuja on Monday.
Fikpo said the facility, comprising basic work tools and cash components, would be disbursed to the graduate trainees from the six geo-political zones of the country.
According to him, the loan disbursement is being executed under the Special Public Works Programme of the NDE.
He, however, said that the directorate in November 2022 concluded three months EBTS skills training for 1,110 unemployed youths in the 36 states and the FCT, Abuja at 30 participants per state.
“The agency had planned to empower 962 graduated trainees of the 1,110 participants but could only resettle 494 due to budgetary constraints.
“The other 470 graduate trainees will be empowered at a future date.
“The objective of the loan is to create jobs, especially self-employment for the trained participants and help them become self-reliant.
“The mandate of the directorate is to fight mass unemployment in the country by creating jobs through skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development.
“NDE will not stop at training willing Nigerians but will also ensure that the trained participants are well established and out of the unemployment market,” he said.
Fikpo further said that the loan disbursement would create a pool of entrepreneurs that would soon become employers of labour in Nigeria.
Also, the Director, Special Public Works Programme (SPWP), Mrs Olaomi Silvia, said that the empowerment would cover 19 states in the six geo-political zones.
The states include Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo.
Others are Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Kebbi.
Silvia said that 26 people per state were to benefit from the phase one of the programme, using the 50 per cent budget released.
According to her, EBTS is one of the popular schemes of the SPWP of the NDE.
“It is designed to train unemployed persons to acquire professional skills in Environmental Beautification, Sanitation and Protection of Environment.
“The concept also includes beautification of streets, construction of parks and gardens, tree planting, production of blocks, interlocking stones, tiling works and Plaster of Paris,” Silvia said.
