The Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF) has empowered 55 youths in Lagos State and Abuja on business development and leadership skills.
The annual empowerment programme is organised annually with participants picked after a rigorous selection process and trained in areas such as business development and financial management, leadership development, conflict resolution and COVID-19 management.
The executive secretary of the foundation, Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, said that the training which initially started in Lagos was further extended to Abuja after it witnessed tremendous success in recent years in which more than 500 youths had benefited.
She noted that another phase of the programme involves job placement and internship for the beneficiaries who are often mostly senior secondary school students in jobs which they have interest to study in future, adding that through this they can learn more about the job and decide if it’s a profession they could pursue in future.
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Akin-Jimoh, stressed that the foundation often links up the beneficiaries with where they can get financial support to set up their SMEs after the training.
According to her, “We have people who have benefited from the program, own their businesses, a lot of them are now business owners and are also coaching, it is where these young ones go and learn from. We need to strengthen and empower young people in Nigeria, empower them with the necessary skills. We need to ensure that they have all the needed information that they need to excel here. It is not just to travel out of the country; there is so much they can do with their lives here at home”.
Also, speaking about the programme, Tony Eleme, the public relations officer of the foundation, said hundreds of youths have been empowered through the programme, stressing that the placement programme has far enabled hundreds of youths to rediscover themselves and talent.
“So what we did was during the long vacation, they go on internship and we place them in areas of choice.
“For some that want to study medicine, we place them in hospitals; it is for them to go there to see what medical practitioners do, knows their routine and that would reinforce their decision in future on what to do”.
