Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP-Abia South), has in partnership with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Card Technologies, empowered 113 school leavers and graduates in Abia.
Abaribe said at the graduation and disbursement of starter parks to the beneficiaries in Aba on Wednesday that the gesture was aimed at reducing high rate of youth unemployment.
He said the programme tagged: “Entrepreneurship Development Project’’ for participants across the 17 Local Governments, would make the beneficiaries self-employed and contribute to the economic development of the state.
“We are empowering them, we are giving them the equipment and the tools to be able to be self-employed because unemployment is one of the biggest problems that we have today.
“So we are assisting in our own little way from what comes from the Federal Government to join with what the State Government is doing to help in ameliorating the problem of unemployment in our state,’’ he said.
Abaribe, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Information, said the programme had been designed to enable unemployed youths to engage in small scale businesses on cashless basis using the point-of-sale technology (POS).
He said they would be provided with a kiosk, a generator set and pre-loaded money in the machine to commence the business and had also set up monitoring mechanisms.
According to him, the funding is already provided in the budget.
Malam Abubakar Mohammed, the NDE Director-General, commended Abaribe’s initiative to address the challenges of unemployment.
Represented by Mr Kunle Obayan, the Director of Small Scale Enterprises Department, Mohammed said the tripartite collaboration would help boost the economy of Abia.
He said NDE had keyed into the CBN’s league of cashless economy launched in 2011 to introduce Quick-Quick Business Ownership Scheme as well as the Easybiz Business Scheme.
According to him, the best way to fight unemployment is through the ability to create a synergy with all well-meaning stakeholders and assured of the commitment to help reduce unemployment in the country.
Mrs Akudo Ojo, one of the beneficiaries, commended Abaribe, NDE and Card Technologies for the gesture, and assured that the equipment would be used judiciously. (NAN)