A Non-Governmental
Organisation, Safe African Refugees’ Foundation (SARF), says it has embarked on a free empowerment and skills’ acquisition programme for 200 unemployed youths in Cross River State.
The Programme Manager, Miss Patience Etim, who stated this in Calabar, in an interview with journalists said the training would last for one month.
She said that the programme was designed to complement the efforts of government in reducing the rate of unemployment in the state.
Etim said that the beneficiaries were being trained in beads and hat making, computer application, driving, catering and hotel management, photography, bag and shoe making, event management, among others.
She said that after the training, participants would be assisted with soft loans to start their own businesses, while those that preferred working for others would be assisted to get jobs.
The programme manager further said that the organisation had put measures in place to ensure that the loans were judiciously used.
She said that the NGO had organised a similar training in Akwa Ibom, adding that there was plan to extend the programme to other states in the Niger Delta region.
“We want to contribute our own quota to government’s effort toward reducing unemployment,’’ she said.
According to her, the training programme was open to all interested youths in the Niger Delta.
