skill acquisition centers spread across the 21 local government areas of
the state.
The eovernment intent to boost the state youth entrepreneurships skill to meet
up with the nascent global demands of employment skill to accommodatecraftsmanship and encourage creativity and uneven competition among the
youths of different local government to display the skill they have comparative
advantage over others.
Empowerment and Creative Economy, Mr. Bonaventure Enemali, explaining preparation made
so far for the event to mark this Award presentation ceremony to
Philanthropists from Anambra state, who have impacted on lives, an idea borne
out of the drive to encourage the wealthy people and fashion out plans of giving
back to the society that formed them.
He disclosed that the revamping of skill acquisition centers in Anambra would
take a new drive where the ownership of the facilities would be owned by the
communities, where the operation guide of the programmes would be
supervised by the President generals of the host facility to enable it have the
expected adequate care and supervision it requires on each center to the best
use of the beneficiaries in that locality.
Enemali opined further that the idea of hosting skill acquisition programme
one or twin a year would be expunged
, considering the method the ministry is
introducing to the centres for enhance entrepreneurship enterprise.
He said ‘’ what we are trying to do now is that all the communities will take
ownership of these skill acquisition centers and we are going to engage the
well-to-do individuals in each community to invest in the skill acquisition center facilities by providing the needed tools, implements, equipment and
machineries need by the facility .
‘’Taking records of skill acquisition centres now in Anambra state, most of
them are not put into use in full capacity, because, government built some
while some were built by philanthropists, some are situated in the remote
communities, where people are not aware of what is going on in each centre
and they have not developed a sustainable programme that will be run of each
facility.
‘’Some individuals though built skill acquisition centres, making it that we have
like two or three facilities in each LGA, People are not actually taking
ownership of those centres, especially centres that are built in the remote
villages, making these centres to be locked up’’. He exposed.
Speaking on the drive instituted by the state government to appreciate some
individuals who have cultivated the idea of giving back to society that formed
them by impacting on lives of the younger generation on entrepreneurial skills
and providing incentives to encourage Micro Medium and Small Enterprises
(MSME) to stay afloat in their area of specialization, the commissioner revealed
that the state government has designed a module of Award presentation to well
deserving indigenes who have transformed lives in their locality to the
admiration of all and encouragement of others to emulate.
‘’the Award will reward those who have contributed successfully in youth and
community development, they are going to be awarded in the Anambra all of
fame award, they are now going to invest in the centre making it to be more
functional, because we are looking at a situation that all the entrees both
privately owned and government built will be running at a regular bases.
‘’We are looking at a situation where all the centers In the 21 LGAs will be
running concurrently without any room for break in programmes, like having
two weeks training this quarter, or maybe last quarter of the year will organize
a three week training.
‘’We are looking at the situation where all the centers will be running
simultaneously, if a batch graduates this season, another takes off immediately
so that there will be activities in all the canters simultaneously in the state.
‘’What we intent to achieve is that by the time all the facilities in the state are
running concurrently, within a year, we will be targeting between one-to two
million jobs every year where Anambra youths are trained in different skills .
‘’The interesting thing we also want to achieve is that the centers will be
sustained by ensuring that those who have acquired the skill but do not have
enough capital to start on their own, will be retained, to source for jobs , used
the center facility to do their mobile business, in the process be training new
members within a year they will be able to save enough money to establish
their own .
‘’Importantly, we will introduce Entrepreneurship clinic in all the centers,
teaching them on how to market their skills acquired, how to expand on their
training to improve on the knowledge they have acquired for enhance profit
driven business orientation.
‘’They will also be taught on how to draft business plans and apply
entrepreneurship prowess to the skill leant to compete favourable with advance
professionals in that their skill of endavour.
‘’We intend to also expose them to some basic skills in marketing to enable
them know where to go to improve on the skill they have acquired, because
most of them will leverage on the centres, to use the facility to source for job,
this will reduce the plan to source for take-off grants for trained people that
may be delayed". Enemali explained.
Speaking on the need for the skill acquisition centres to be revamped to revive
the creative nature of Anambra youths and engender entrepreneurial skill in
the minds of an average Anambra youth to enable them compete with their
counterparts in the advance economy like China, the project Director,
Generation for peace foundation, Engineer Emeka Anyadubalu buttressed the
importance of ensuring leadership skills are cultivated from the grassroots.
He outlined some of the measures put up by the organization to ascertain the
right philanthropist is selected and measures put in place to enumerate the
skill acquisition centers in each local government area and what should be
provided to achieve the desired aim of the state government to improve the skill
and entrepreneurial drive of an average Anambra youth.
‘’The government of Anambra state is set to honour philanthropists in the
state, on the World Charity Day celebration coming up on 8th of September,
2018, what Anambra state wants to do is in line with the United Nation’s
sensitization of SDGs by ending poverty and hunger by year 2030.
‘’In this state, we have Philanthropists who have impacted so much in the lives
of so many people, we are trying to achieve a competitive spirit among the
philanthropists.
‘’The reason for this Award is to recognize their impact to the society, what they
have done so far and the lives they have been able to impact positively
‘’Anambra state government is doing this through the state ministry of youth Empowerment and Creative Economy, the Governor, His Excellency, Chief Willie Obiano has
approved that this project should take off, so that we can achieve a competitive
spirit among the philanthropists because, at the end of this project, other
people who have not started doing something will be encourage to do
something.
‘’We have a project for the youths; revamping the skill acquisition centres in
the 21 LFGAs of Anambra state, we intend to actualize this with the ministry,
by reforming the centers , by so doing, the youths will be gainfully employed in
those communities through this revived skill acquisition initiative’’. He added,
Moreso, a guidance and counseling expert, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka,
Professor Mercy Anabogwu disclosed that the state youths would be engaged
in entrepreneurship skill to enable them meet up with the current global
demands of youthful productivity.
She said ‘’This time around, we have realized that a lot of Philanthropists
within and across the globe who are from Anambra state have been carrying
out various projects silently, developing their communities, without anyone
recognizing them, this time around, Government wants to appreciate their
efforts and encourage other to emulate their gestures.
‘’Some people have really devoted their monies, sacrificed their money to meet
the interest of society. A number of youths in the society, many of them do not
have jobs; they need to be restored, they need to be given something, they need
to be re-established, by strengthening their skills, a number of them are very
intelligent, many of them are also hard working, but they neither have a
specialise skill to go into area of interest to build their career through skill
acquisition.
‘’From studies and researches we have carried out, we discover that a number
of skill acquisition centers have been built in Anambra state just to help the
poor, but then, those areas are not functional, maybe as a result of paucity of facility or paucity of people to handle them, they need revamping, they need
reformation’’. She advised.
END