By Alltimepost.com
[dropcap]N[/dropcap]igerian bank manager, Mr. Michael Adetola has urged the 302 Libya returnees who, at the weekend in Benin City graduated from capacity building and skills development program, established by Edo State Government to apply financial discipline as they set up their businesses.Adetola who was one of the facilitators of the graduation ceremony stressed: “Financial discipline plays important role in managing small businesses. Without it, one makes wrong decisions, which account for the failure of most small businesses.”
The Obaseki administration said it established the scheme to ease returnees’ re-integration into society.
The chairperson, Edo State Task Force Against Human Trafficking, and Commissioner for Justice/Attorney General in Edo State, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe, at the ceremony to mark the end of the two-week vocational and technical training program, said “the graduation marks the first step in preparing the returnees on the path to becoming successful entrepreneurs and employers of labour.”
She said the second batch of graduands from the program were trained on beadmaking, make-up and basic sewing, and their graduation is coming few months after the first set of returnees were trained on agribusiness and provided with 150 hectares of land and 100 million start-up fund to ease their settling into society.
According to Omorogbe, “163 of the returnees acquired skills in make-up; 92 in basic sewing, while 47 were trained in the art of beadmaking.”
She charged the graduands to be ambassadors of Edo State and expressed delight at the success of the program. She said the state government will assist returnees who have successfully acquired skills in different trades to enable them set-up small-scale businesses through which they can provide for themselves and employ others.
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Edo State Governor on Anti-Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration, Mr. Solomon Okoduwa described the graduation ceremony as one that has further demonstrated the commitment and interest of the state government in the fight against human trafficking and irregular migration in the state.
“Mr. Godwin Obaseki has shown that he will keep his promise to assist the returnees and reintegrate them into the society by providing them with sustainable means of livelihood,” he said.
Okoduwa said that the graduands will be organized into co-operatives, which will enable them access credit facilities at zero-percent interest. He noted that “all the graduands will be required to register with the cooperative. Their progress will be monitored to see how they will put credits into good use. It will also help us breed entrepreneurs and employers of labour.”
