THE National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) have begun two schemes that will see 1,150 persons exit the unemployment population.
At the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Abuja, the Director General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed said the 1,150 beneficiaries were drawn from the 36 states of the federation including the Federation Capital Territory (FCT).
The two schemes are the Basic Business Training (BBT) and Start Your Own Business (SYOB) and will cost N400 million.
The DG explained that while the BBT with 700 beneficiaries would cost N175 million, the SYOB which has 450 beneficiaries on board will cost the partnership a total N225 million.
Mohammed who expressed happiness that NDE's search for productive partnership is beginning to yield fruits described the NERFUND partnership as a synergy that will not only boost job creation efforts of the directorate but will contribute to the overall effort of poverty reduction initiative of the government.
The NDE boss revealed that the preliminary discussion of the partnership began in 2005 when the NDE approached NERFUND for collaboration towards job creation through entrepreneurial skills.
However, he was quick to point out that in 2005, NERFUND was going through some administrative difficulty, which made progress impossible at the time. The NDE helmsman therefore lauded NERFUND for re-opening the talks now that it has been repositioned to play dominant role in providing resources for the empowerment of the unemployed.
He explained that over the years, the NDE has extended the frontiers of its collaboration initiatives to other agencies that can contribute to employment generation in the country.
His words: "In order to commence the implementation of the MOU, the NDE would be proposing the advancing of about N400 million to 1, 150 projects of participants of our training programmes who have submitted feasibility reports on profitable projects. On our own part, we have evaluated the projects and selected the ones that good enough and they would be sent to you for your consideration soonest."
The NDE DG appealed to both the management and members of staff of the two organisations to redouble their efforts so as to ensure the survival of the initiative.
Mohammed emphasised that the problem of unemployment facing Nigeria was enormous, and appealed to NERFUND to join hands with the NDE and continue with the collaboration at least for the next five years.
He commended the Joint Committee set up by both NDE and NERFUND whose work has resulted in the signing of the MOU, and specifically thanked the Managing Director of NERFUND, Alhaji Baba Maina Gimba and his entire management for the manner in which issues relating to the collaboration were professionally sorted out.
