The Baywood Foundation, an NGO, has started training 200 youths in Enugu East LGA using a grant provided by the Coca-Cola Foundation.
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Beneficiaries will be trained to acquire entrepreneurial and vocational skills in ICT, photography, photo and video editing, barbing, digital marketing, graphics design, and the making of confectionaries.
Other skills being taught are cosmetology, production of household essentials and other homemade consumables, fascinators, hats, and other small-scale enterprises that young people can leverage on for steady income.
Flagging off the training on Saturday at Nkwo-Nike, Secretariat of the council area, the Country Director of the Foundation, Mr. Chukwudi Ojielo, said that the Youth ICT and Skill Acquisition Project (YISAP) was meant to eliminate poverty.
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Ojielo noted that the fight against poverty in Nigeria was everyone’s responsibility and pledged the Foundation’s commitment to impact the Nigerian populace with skills that would provide employment and income.
He recounted the successes achieved in two council areas – Igboeze-North and Udi – where the YISAP program had been implemented.
“I am challenging the selected youths in this council area to prove themselves worthy representatives and also put to practice everything they will learn in the next three-months.
“It is only the best 33 participants that would be given seed funds as a start-up support,’’ he said.
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The YISAP Programme Officer, Mr Obinna Ogbu, said two days of each week of the training would focus on business development topics and skills.
“Such business development topics and skills include: personal and product branding; the importance of social media for business; managing finances and bookkeeping and how to attract customers to businesses,’’ Ogbu said.
In his remarks, Chairman, Enugu East Local Government Council, Chief Alex Ugwu, urged participants to use the opportunity offered by the programme to make a change for good in their lives.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Baywood Foundation received a grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation in January to empower 600 youths in Enugu State through YISAP.
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The programme is providing the seed grant of between N45,000 and N60,000 to 100 exceptionally-performed youths among the 600 participants assessed by their attendance, learning and innovative capacities.
Two hundred trainees would be drawn from each of the three senatorial districts of the state to make the 600 beneficiaries.
Sigma Pensions promotes digital skills among youths
One of the Pension Fund Administrators, Sigma Pensions Limited, has stated its commitment to providing youths with digital skills in order to increase their employability, create businesses, and contribute to the development of the Nigerian economy.
Sigma Pensions’ Executive Director of Operations, Mr Afolabi Folayan, stated that the company has been on a digital transformation journey since 2015.
He went on to say that this had led to a radical transformation in the company’s business and service delivery to both internal and external customers.
According to a statement obtained on Tuesday, while speaking at a five-day digital boot camp meeting for youths in Abuja, he stated that Sigma Pensions had used technology to overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our business suffered little or no negative impact during the pandemic because we were able to seamlessly service our customers without interruptions,” he said.
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According to Folayan, the company currently has the most digital channels to service customers as a result of its digital innovation drive.
He went on to say that, in keeping with its corporate social responsibility commitment and through strategic partnerships, the company has impacted over 1.3 million youths across the country in an effort to improve their entrepreneurial skills.
“Our corporate social responsibility projects have been focused on financial literacy for young people between the ages of 18 and 25, i.e. corps members and young graduates,” Folayan explained.
“By funding their business ideas and sponsoring their community development projects, we have empowered young entrepreneurs in NYSC camps.
“Since 2019, we have collaborated with Junior Achievement Nigeria on three CSR projects aimed at financial literacy and entrepreneurship.”
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The executive director went on to say that the company hoped to equip young Nigerians with skills in web development, graphics, and animation through the empowerment programs.
According to him, this was part of Sigma Pensions’ contribution to the country’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
He explained that the boot camp had been attended by approximately 100 young people ranging in age from 18 to 25.
