Date: 2017-12-22

Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, yesterday, graduated 1,000 beneficiaries of her empowerment programme tagged: "Future Assured" in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

Mrs Buhari, who arrived the Ilorin International Airport exactly 11:35 am yesterday to a rousing welcome, was received by the wife of the Kwara State Governor, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed and other government functionaries.

The wife of the President was accompanied by wife of the Senate President, Barr. Toyin Saraki and former deputy governor of Plateau State, Mrs Pauline Tallen, among others.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony which was held at the Kwara State Government House, Mrs. Buhari disclosed that the beneficiaries were trained in various economic activities in line with the mandate towards empowering women and youths across the country.

According to her, "the programme is in line with the mandate of my programme whose main focus has been on the empowerment of women and other less privileged, towards the realisation of economic self reliance.

"Since the inception of this administration, we have successfully conducted this empowerment programme where the beneficiaries graduated with certificates in many states while others are still ongoing." Mrs. Buhari however stressed that, "Women and youths are always eager and interested to acquire these skills" even as she noted that the programme was designed towards uplifting the living standard of residents of the state.

In her remarks, Mrs. Ahmed, reiterated the commitment of the present administration towards providing jobs for the teeming unemployed populace especially youths and women.

She said: "Today's ceremony marks a new pedestal in the lives of the graduands as they will soon not only be self employed, when they bring their acquired experiences during the training to bear, they will equally become employers of labour thus, significantly help in reducing unemployment in our country."

Mrs Ahmed therefore advised the successful beneficiaries to be serious and steadfast in their respective businesses in order to become leading lights to others.