Date: 2021-06-08

Fifty unemployed graduate youths in Kwara state have been trained by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) on how to start and run their private businesses.

Speaking during the flag-off of the five-day entrepreneurship development programme in Ilorin on Monday, the Kwara state coordinator of the NDE, Engineer Aba Timothy Omochoko JP, advised the beneficiaries of the programme to take family and friends away from their businesses in order to succeed.

The NDE coordinator, who said that the beneficiaries were selected out of 500 applicants from the three senatorial districts of the state, added that the participants at the workshop would be given a start-up loan package on their chosen businesses after the training programme.

He also said that the beneficiaries should be free to approach the directorate after their training on areas of challenges for necessary assistance.

Engineer Omochoko, who said that the participants should employ packaging in their businesses, added that they should operate their businesses differently from the way unlettered people do theirs to ensure business edge.

He also said that white-collar jobs had become elusive, adding that graduates are no longer expected to look for office work since private entrepreneurs are making waves.

The NDE coordinator, who cited examples of graduate moin-moin (bean cake) and kuli-kuli (groundnut cake) entrepreneurs, said that packaging given to their businesses had helped to give them the edge when compared with traditional sellers of the commodities.

He also advised the beneficiaries to go into the partnership of two or three to ensure better productivity and success, adding that they should use their money well to conquer poverty, stressing that the impact of their knowledge and experience would make them excel better when harnessed.

Also speaking, the deputy director, small scale enterprises department of the NDE, Mrs Folashade Lanre-Ogun, said that the participants were trained on motivation for becoming business entrepreneurs, how to generate business ideas, planning businesses, staffing, and how to write bankable feasibility report.