The Vocational Skills Department (VSD), of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), weekend disbursed Starter Packs Equipment to 34 graduates of Community Based Training Scheme (CBTS) who successfully completed their training in fashion designing, catering, aluminum fabrication, hair dressing as well as electrical installation in Enugu.
The Starter Packs Equipment, such as aluminum fabricating machines, sewing machines, hair dressing equipment, is a revolving soft loan which the beneficiaries are expected to repay in order to enable others benefit from the gesture.
Speaking at the closing/disbursement ceremony which took place at Amankpaka Community Hall, Ugwuogo Nike, Enugu, the director general of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, urged the beneficiaries to maximize the use of the equipment to build their business and become employers of labour, saying that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Fikpo, represented by the Enugu State coordinator of NDE, Mrs. Ifeoma Ezepuo, reminded the beneficiaries that the equipment/tools given to them has low interest repayment, as low as 9 percent.
“We expect you to be repaying according to the repayment schedule after the moratorium period to enable other unemployed youth to benefit also,” he said.
He also said in line with the NDE mandate of reducing unemployment, NDE also engages in skills acquisition and goes further to ensure that they are empowered to set up their own business by giving them relevant starter packs.
