Enterprise Agency Empowers 800 Youths, Women

The Managing Director/Chief, Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA), Mr. Muhammad Arabi Tukur, has disclosed that over 800 youths and women had been trained on ICT and other skills acquisition programme in the past three years.

Speaking while he received the Director General, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Mr. Guy Ryder, who paid him a visit in Abuja, Tukur also disclosed plan to undertake a financial literacy sensitisation programme to increase the number of entrepreneurs who have access to financial services so as to understand how to properly use the funds they received for their business.

He said: “We are also focused on youth and women development; we have in the past three years trained over 800 youths and women on ICT, skills acquisition programmes covering areas such as shoes production and other leather works, cosmetology, confectionary and entrepreneurial training.

“In over 10 years of supporting businesses in the FCT and beyond, the agency has assisted over 73, 450 individuals and businesses (90 per cent of whom are youths) with critical business support such as business clinics, access to finance, counselling, sensitisation, workspace and market linkage and many more.”

He noted that though the AEA had achieved some successes, it required more partnerships, particularly with the ILO Nigeria Office, to scale up and build new projects in various locations in the FCT.

Responding however, Ryder, said despite the successes, the challenge was to scale-up the agency’s intervention schemes to enable more people to benefit.

According to him: “There are wonderful examples of successes but we know there are a lot of people out there who need decent work opportunities, there are a lot of young people looking for a place in their world of work, so it’s just doing more. I glad with what they are doing but we need to scale up.”