By Adedapo Adesanya
With double-digit unemployment figures posing major threat to Nigeria, top financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, in collaboration with Gazelle Academy, have trained over 200 students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka on entrepreneurship.
The programme which ran from Wednesday October 23 – Friday October 25, 2019 was organized to drive youths to engage in sustainable employment alternatives that will see them create wealth for themselves rather than seeking out non-existing paid employment.
The event, a brainchild under the Fidelity Youth Empowerment Academy (YEA 6), was designed to empower undergraduates in selected tertiary institutions across the six geo-political zones of the country with adequate vocational skills and enterprise training which are relevant for self-reliance.
YEA had previously held at University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Waziri Umar Federal Polytechnic, Birnin-Kebbi; Federal Polytechnic Oko; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, and Bayero University, Kano.
Participants at the programme were trained in various skill areas including, fashion, make-up, clothe embellishment, coding and confectionery.
Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, wife of the Anambra State Governor, Mr Willie Obiano, thanked Fidelity Bank and Gazelle Academy for the initiative and for partnering with her organisation to touch lives, urging the participants to take the training seriously.
Mrs Obiano, who is also the founder of Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE), stressed that the participants were being empowered to impact their lives now and in the future.
The First Lady further urged the participants not to mismanage the starter-packs and emoluments given to them but to put them to good use and change their lives.
“You can make money from what learnt here even while still in school and when you graduate, we expect you to be employers of labour rather than searching for paid jobs,” she said.
