COVID-19: 150 people empowered in skills acquisition

One hundred and fifty people across three area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been empowered in various skills to help tackle the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The empowerment programme organised by Xploits Consulting Ltd and sponsored by Access Bank is part of efforts to ensure people in rural communities have […]

One hundred and fifty people across three area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been empowered in various skills to help tackle the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The empowerment programme organised by Xploits Consulting Ltd and sponsored by Access Bank is part of efforts to ensure people in rural communities have skills to fall back on to make extra income.

The director, communications, Xploits Consulting, Mrs Grace Taiwo, at the training of about 50 beneficiaries in Kuje Area Council at the weekend, said the firm discovered that during the COVID-19 lockdown people were out of jobs while very few unemployed people had skills that could earn them income.

She said their plan was to train men and women that were interested in making extra income for themselves and their families.

“We want to see people use their hands to create wealth and depend less on the government. We covered three area councils in FCT, Bwari, Kwali and Kuje, where we trained them in multi-purpose soap making, beads making and makeup and gele. You can see that it is not limited to women but men who are interested are also beneficiaries,” she said.

She said they extended the training to men because they are the breadwinners in most homes and many of them were affected in their workplaces during the lockdown.

One of the participants, Philip Bitrus, who lauded the efforts of the organisers of the training said most times it is only women who benefit from this kind of empowerment but, “today we are saying that what women can do, men can do better’’.