Edo begins five-month business training for youths, women

The Edo State Government, through the state’s Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission, has launched a five-month training on business development and sustainability for youths and women in oil-producing communities in the state, in line with the government’s focus on human capacity development.

Chairman of the Commission, Pastor Kennedy Osifo disclosed this during a sensitization tour of Ologbo Community, one of the 33 oil communities within the jurisdiction of EDSOGPADEC.

He said the government’s commitment to human capacity development necessitated the creation of the Human Capital Development Department as approved by the Board of EDSOGPADEC.

Osifo said, “Since inception, the Commission had focused on infrastructure upgrade of roads, schools, primary healthcare centres, abattoirs and open market, among others. But the new focus of EDSOGPADEC, in line with its core mandate, is now human capital development.

“This is also in line with the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration’s Making Edo Great Again agenda. We are confident that when the youths are empowered, it will help to end age-long agitations for development, as the Commission is a creation of agitation and must do the right thing to address the issues and achieve the purpose for which it was created.”

On her part, the Commissioner representing Edo South in the Commission and Supervisor of Human Capital Development, Princess Iku Ewuare Aimiuwu noted that the empowerment programme is targeted at youths and women.

She disclosed that the training programme would be in two sessions, which will last for five months each, after which the trainees will be established in their various skills or fields to commence their business, adding that they will be monitored and guided on how to run their businesses successfully.

The Director, Human Capital Development Department, Mr Godwin Ogieriakhi said the empowerment programme cuts across the three oil-producing local governments of the state, with 50 persons drawn from each local government area in the first phase.