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Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe has sustained his determination to engage youths in the commercial city; by making them self-reliant as well as wealth creators.
The programme which is open to indigenes of Onitsha, equips any interested youths with entrepreneurial/business skills in any areas of their choice.
Speaking at the graduation and presentation of certificates to 70 beneficiaries who graduated from the scheme, recently; Igwe Achebe said that they were expected to stand on their own, henceforth.
He said: “We are all aware of the basic challenges we have in this country which is unemployment that contributes to the security challenges we have in the country. This leads youths to social vices like petty crimes, armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, cybercrime etc because there is unemployment and they are frustrated, they will indulge in crimes.
“That is why we want to address and tackle the problem in Onitsha. We are not the first in entrepreneurship programme in the country, we are joining the bandwagon. We want to make our young men and women to become useful to themselves; and in the process become useful to the society at large and also become employers.
“As we heard today, one of those graduating today has seven graduates under his employment and maybe in future some of you will also employ other people and it keeps going. The first set of 70 of the trainees were given N500,000 each amounting to N35 million but they did not apply the money to the project, so we have to recover the money and so far; N33 million have been recovered from them. This is because we monitor what they do and how they utilize the soft loan given to them”.
The monarch explained that the programme also caters for people whose businesses were not doing well in addition to those whose small businesses needed upgrade like eatery, tailoring/fashion designers, salon, shoe makers, bead makers and others.
He disclosed that the programme has attracted sponsorship from the Ford Foundation and some other bodies that found the initiative laudable.
Igwe Achebe listed some other programmes targeted at youths in the area to include long vacation training for secondary school students and anti-drug campaign because prevention is more important than cure.
He urged all the youths to register with the Onitsha Youths Council; in order to benefit from other youth programmes sponsored by the palace.
In his remarks, Chairman of Onitsha North Local Government Area, Mr. Patrick Agha Mba lauded the monarch for his efforts in empowering the youths over the years, and assured that the council will continue to partner with him in the areas of community and youth development.
“I want to appreciate Igwe Achebe for his very inspiring commitment to the development of the youth. Your Majesty’s roles in provision of scholarships, sponsoring of the annual long vocation tutorial programme, facilitating the entrepreneurial development and skill acquisition programme which trained and supported 70 graduates in various enterprising skills etc, have been very outstanding in ensuring bright future for Onitsha youths.
“My administration shall continue to key into the programme of the Igwe and provide synergy in strategic areas of youth development as we have done with establishment of ICT centre at Imeobi Onitsha and Onitsha North skill acquisition centre Imeobi Umuezearoli, Onitsha,” he said.
Facilitator of the programme, Prof Ikechukwu Ikeme said that the youths were eager to learn new skills and business development programmes, in the course of the training.
The programme, he said, is targeted at creating an entrepreneurial society within Onitsha and beyond through strategy human capital development and capacity building for business enterprise owners, especially those from Onitsha extraction.
