Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Total Upstream Nigeria Limited has partnered with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to build a skills-acquisition centre in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital as part of its effort to empower women and the physically challenged.
The objective of the Women and Youth Skill Development Centre is to train physically challenged persons and women in various skills in four core vocations to empower them and take them out of poverty.
The facility which is part of the corporate social responsibility of the company will provide accommodation for beneficiaries during the training.
It consists of four training halls fully equipped for the training of fashion designing and tailoring, catering and hotel management, computer training and mixes training facility, sickbay, 400 sitter auditorium and a lounge.
The project, according to the Group General Manager, NAPIMS and the Managing Director Total Upstream Companies, Mr Bala Wunti, will reduce women and youth unemployment and restiveness in communities around the state and empower the beneficiaries.
Speaking at the commissioning, the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Kayode Fayemi, said the centre will enhance the potentials of the beneficiaries and bring out hidden abilities in them.
Governor Fayemi appreciated the gesture of Total Upstream saying his administration had created an Office of Disability Affairs to provide special attention for the plight of the vulnerable in the society especially the people living with disabilities.
The beneficiaries could not hold back their joy as they commended the gesture noting that it will give them a new lease of life.
