Business and Vocational Skills Training Academy (BVSTA), an entrepreneurship capacity development training outfit, has empowered over 100 women residents in 31 communities in Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos State with entrepreneurship development programmes.
Aimed at making the women economically viable in their businesses, the programme, otherwise known as Managers Island Women Entrepreneurship, is championed by BVSTA, a Lagos-based training outfit.
The graduation ceremony for the women, which held recently in Apapa also marked the flag-off of women entrepreneurship intervention in under-served riverine communities.
As well, BVSTA Academy is partnering with LEAD-P and other partners in opening the under-served riverine communities.
The BVSTA strategy is women entrepreneurship intervention based and it targets about 5,000 women, enabling them to play key role in the development of the under-served riverine communities. The programmes include career board club, next-generation employment skill acquisition, employment academy, business clinic, amen empowerment and Mome Africa.
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It observed that “the economic gap between cities and riverine communities in Lagos is quite huge for comfort, citing Tincan Island and Apapa ports, which sit at the back of several underserved, poverty-stricken riverine communities.”
BVSTA believes that the poor standard of living in the Apapa riverine communities constitutes potential dangers for the economic gateway of the country, should there be no deliberate efforts to stem poverty in the areas.
Speaking in an interview, Favour Dakoru, BVSTA executive director and co-founder, said the effect of the COVID- 19 pandemic on the livelihood of many families led to the idea of the programme to bridge the widening poverty gap in Apapa.
“This programme is aimed at ensuring that women in the riverine communities in Apapa Local Government Area are economically empowered to achieve their dream,” Dokoru explained.
