Unlocking Empowerment Opportunities for Youth in Nigeria
During this training, I learnt how to make shoes, and I have made two pairs of shoes, I am currently wearing one and I sold the other one for N3000, which is my first profit ever, I am really excited, I couldn’t have made it without KIR Foundation, I thank everybody that supports KIR Foundation.
The KIR Foundation Teenage Easter Empowerment Programme (TEEP) commenced on Monday the 1st of April and ended on the 18th of April. The participants were trained in the following skills; Shoe making, Soap making, Sign Language, Making Skincare Products, Basic ICT. The facilitators were; Osaghe Osamuyi for Shoe making, Imoh Etim for Sign Language, Rebecca Asemokhe for Soap Making, Violet Maxwell- Benson for skincare Products and Mina Tamunowari for Basic ICT.
The relevance of vocational training in our developing economy cannot be overemphasized, this is because Nigeria ranked 152 of 157 countries in the World Bank’s 2018 Human Capital Index due to Under Investment. Furthermore, the country continues to face massive developmental challenges, which include the need to reduce the dependency on oil and diversify the economy.
According to the World Bank Report, Nigeria with a population of approximately 197 million, accounts for about 47% of West Africa’s population, and has one of the largest populations of youth in the world.
Some of the KIR Foundation TEEP youth beneficiaries are disadvantaged youth who want to attend tertiary institutions, but are held back by lack of funding. Through our skills acquisition projects, these youths are equipped with relevant skills that are consistent with the needs of the labour market. Thus, enabling our beneficiaries to get employment or become self-employed so that they can afford good education and help develop the society.
Jennifer Chinedu, one of the participants said “The high rate of unemployed graduates I see in the society motivated me to join the Teenage Easter Empowerment programme, I want to learn skills to empower myself so I can be self-employed. I thank KIR Foundation for making it possible for me to learn these skills”.
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