• Gov Nwifuru fights street hawking, gives N1bn lifeline to 500 persons
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
From Lagos to Enugu, Abuja to Port Harcourt and in many other Nigerian cities, the street traders or hawkers abound. A member of Ebonyi State Development Association (ESDA), Emmanuel Ndugo, in 2027, claimed that a study showed that over 65 per cent of those engaged in such activity across Nigeria hailed from Ebonyi State: “Out of every 10 hawkers on the highway, seven are from Ebonyi. This menace in a great measure is causing the state a lot of embarrassment.”
This unenviable badge signposted the illiteracy, unemployment and poverty levels in the South East state as these drivers push an army of young men from the state into street hawking.
Aware that street trading has become the most prominent brand of Ebonyi youths, the ESDA in Lagos State six years ago mounted aggressive campaign against the scourge.
Attracted by the attention, former governor David Umahi at the fifth Ebonyi Cultural Day in Lagos, gave out financial support of N250,000 to 520 of such street traders of the state origin. The beneficiaries were 40 each from the 13 local governments.
He enjoined the recipients to invest the money received wisely, hoping that the initiative would empower them to be self-reliant in the days ahead. Coordinating chairman of the event, Prof. Williams Olughu, said though street traders were entrepreneurs, there was need to redirect and pull them out of the streets.
Pioneer governor Sam Egwu tackled street trading with free and compulsory education to secondary school level. Foreign scholarships were also awarded to indigenes of Ebonyi to boost human capital. Notwithstanding, numerous Ebonyi youths still hawked and roamed the major cities of Nigeria.
But Governor Francis Nwifuru seems to have fashioned a permanent solution to the issue. As speaker, House of Assembly, he presented N250,000 cheque to each of the beneficiaries in Lagos in 2017. As he aspired to be governor, he reportedly commissioned a study on the problem.
The outcome of the survey prompted the inclusion of the programme in the governor’s People’s Charter of Needs manifesto for the state. The plan is to pull out 3,000 Ebonyians from the streets, give them skills and money to operationalise their skills.
He flagged off the first batch of skill training for 500 hawkers from the state selected from various cities across the country. Inaugurating the scheme at the state’s vocational college inside Centenary City, New Government House, Abakaliki, on Tuesday, October 17, the governor charged the beneficiaries to bend down, learn skills and get innovations for a better living.
He said he decided to embark on the empowerment programme because he needed people to work together with him to champion his Charter of Needs manifesto. He noted that the 500 persons after training in various skills would be empowered with N2million each.
Nwifuru took time to narrate his humble beginning as a bricklayer before getting elective positions as a lawmaker and eventually, the governor.
He urged Ebonyi people to engage in meaningful ventures from where they may be promoted to higher level: “So, it is not by force that you learn skill if you have what you are doing that is very much enormous to feed you.
“For those who don’t have what can put food on their table without struggle, bend down and learn the skill and get innovations. Find a way of being very much enhanced so that at the end of the day, you will not only get growth but you get development attached to it.
“It gives me a lot of courage after selecting people who can reason together with me to champion my charter of needs manifesto.
“I didn’t know I was going to enjoy the cooperation I am enjoying today. I didn’t know I would enjoy the support of most of our leaders.”
Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Business Development, Chief Oguzor Offia-Nwali, explained that the training would last as long as the beneficiaries can learn the skills: “Their accounts will be credited with the money immediately after they are certified to have learned the skills
“We are not forcing them to learn particular skills. They are allowed to learn the skill they want. The beneficiaries were selected from the cities we visited.”
His Trade and Investment counterpart, Nnanna Elechi, said it was anchored on Nwifuru’s desire to liberate indigenes of the state hustling in the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Onitsha, Aba, Port-Harcourt and others.
Several indigenes and groups from the state have praised the governor for the laudable initiative and expressed the hope that it will help in mitigating the teeming youth unemployment in the state.
A youth leader, Johnson Nwankwo, said the governor was determined to change the narrative in the state from his people-oriented programmes, so far: “We know that with proper orientation and support, may people will benefit from the scheme. It will really help in tackling unemployment. We pray that the effort will be sustained if politicians don’t derail it.”