Helping Kano women to dream their way out of poverty
Interestingly, women in Kano are not just into learning and doing a trade with a view to fight poverty, but are also engaged in unique trades previously regarded to be peculiar to men. This woman with a dream to establish a factory in future, learnt the trade with keen interest seeing it as the beginning […]
Interestingly, women in Kano are not just into learning and doing a trade with a view to fight poverty, but are also engaged in unique trades previously regarded to be peculiar to men. This woman with a dream to establish a factory in future, learnt the trade with keen interest seeing it as the beginning of a fortune. Not just leather works, other women are also engaged in learning lots, other vocational skills under the National Directorate of Employment scheme for widows and vulnerable female groups in the society.
Also counting herself lucky being part of the training, Fatima Aliyu who learnt an advanced method of tie and dye, called Kampala making, said it one of the best things that ever happened to her as she now has a business focus. She said the skill acquired was worth more than any other thing that might follow.
“Honestly, I count myself very lucky being a part of the NDE skills acquisition programme and this is because, prior to this golden opportunity, I never had any clear idea of a trade that could contribute to my family’s economy, but now, I am a better person and will ensure that I make the best use of the skills I acquired,” said Fatima.
She also plans to be a trainer in beads making and Kampala. “My dream does not end with just utilizing the skills acquired with the aim of boosting my economic status but also to train other women by way of impacting same knowledge on those who are also handicapped when it comes to employment and financial independence.”
Other trades taught as part of the scheme includes hairdressing and cosmetology. The cosmetology trainer, Sayyada Fatima Maryam Sid Ali, said the performance of the women under her tutelage was exceptional. “Cosmetology needs adequate attention and concentration in order to get the correct mixture of the chemicals used and honestly, despite the fact that some of the trainees are illiterates, their participation and understanding of how the chemicals are measured and mixed is just marvelous.”
She further expressed optimism that the women could be self reliant after the training, saying it was a lucrative business. “From the way the women are showing keen interest in the trade during the training, it indicates that they are ready to get out of poverty by way of being self reliant. And ordinarily, it is a very lucrative business and also not seasonal because women use cosmetics everyday of their lives and interestingly, with a minimal capital, one can start such business,” she said.
Among the things taught in the cosmetology class are making of liquid bath and laundry soaps, pomades and body creams, hair creams, toothpaste powder, vim, menthol creams of various types, variety of face powder and many more.
Also fascinating about the empowerment scheme is the commendation of the trainees’ performance and doggedness by their trainers. Hamisu Idris, an expert in leather works said there was no doubt that the women interested in leather works could excel in the trade and this was informed by the enthusiasm they had shown throughout the training period.
“It is worth commendation experiencing a period whereby our women no longer see that leather works is peculiar to men and that is why a number of them chose to do it. Their commitment to the training is quite encouraging and this goes to show that our women can compete in the very near future with women from other parts of the country in terms of trading and empowerment,” Idris assured.
The Kampala trainer, Hajiya Hauwa Mohammed Mai Kampala as well as the hairdressing trainer, Amina Abdullahi, also shared same view on the commitment and interest exhibited by the women to bring unemployment, poverty and redundancy among them to a standstill. Amina further said it was also commendable that Kano women now see hairdressing as a way of fighting poverty as against the initial belief that it was a trade for southern women.
The scheme, according to the Kano State Coordinator of the directorate, Malam Ibrahim Kadira, was just one out of the many programmes the directorate offered. He further said the main concern of the directorate was to get the women trained so as to be self-reliant and fit to face challenges of life.
According to him, “the major mandate of the directorate is to create employment through training people in different trades and sometimes, even offer start-off capital for the trainees which is in the form of soft loans. But our primary aim is to equip people with the basic skills and knowledge and this we do under different schemes ranging from skills acquisition programmes for youths in and out of school, widows and other vulnerable women groups, graduates and many more.”
Kadiri said even though efforts of the directorate in employment creation was enormous, it was a fact that the percentage of unemployed persons benefitting from the scheme was not adequate. He therefore called for collaboration between the directorate and other stakeholders with a view to expand the training project so that more people would benefit.
“The situation on ground is that the directorate does not have the capacity to train the teaming unemployed people in the society and at the same time, provide them with loans as capital base. So, that is why we are calling on stakeholders like governments, Non-Governmental Organisations, wealthy individuals and companies among others, to come to the aid of the unemployed youths and women by way of collaborating with the NDE. They can do this in a situation whereby since the directorate has designed training programmes and procedures, it will provide the training while the collaborators finance it and also provide soft loans to the trainees at the end of the training. If this will be achieved, I can assure anyone that the rate of unemployment in our society will drastically drop.” Kadiri maintained.