WWASC to Empower Abia Women, Youths to Become Entrepreneurs
World Wide Association of Small Churches (WWASC) has initiated a programme in Abia State that would enable women and youths to acquire entrepreneurship skills to enhance their economic status.
To this end, a delegation of WWASC led by the president, Rev Bernadette Legan, was in Abia to explore ways of using small churches in the state to transform many lives.
Rev Legan, who is a pastor at the Union United Methodist Church, New York, said that there was need for families to be empowered to become entrepreneurs and for women to start growing their own businesses.
“We are here to see how we can create economic development in Nigeria,” she said, adding, “We can couple business with churches.”
The WWASC president explained that churches should not only cater for the spiritual well-being of members but also their economic affairs hence the need to empower women, youths and girls to have financial independence.
“We want to help the small churches to crystallise their vision. When you begin to transform the business of church with entrepreneurship you begin to transform lives,” Legan said.
She lamented that a large population of black people in developing countries like Nigeria were still struggling to rise above poverty level, saying that “it is time for the black race to wake up and do the right thing” to improve their lives.
Legan, who was flanked by other members of her team, Bishop Ebony Kirkland and Chaplain Nicole Langlaise, said that Nigeria was ripe to benefit from the entrepreneurship training programme as their zeal for both religion and entrepreneurship “is a perfect mix” for the successful implementation of the programme.
Aside from using the platform of small churches in Abia to empower people Legan also said that they would partner schools in the state to train people on entrepreneurship.
Professor Nkechi Agwu, who facilitated the entrepreneurship training programme, said that the partnership with WWASC would be beneficial to the communities, local governments and Abia State in general.
The professor of mathematics said that entrepreneurship training could begin in childhood as the children could be taught to become entrepreneurs and take anything in their environment and make a living from it.
The team visited rural communities in Ikwuano Local Government to find out their area of needs that needed the intervention of WWASC and were told that education was the priority
Legan and her team were also at Item in Bende Local Government where she laid the foundation stone for J. U. Agwu International Conference and Media Centre in commemoration of Prof. Agwu’s late father. The centre is designed to provide media and cultural resources and training for journalists.
The World Wide Association of Small Churches is a worldwide-based fellowship of independent churches designed to equip, unite, educate, and provide accountability to churches and ministries that have a desire to fulfill the great commission of Jesus Christ.