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Islamic scholar tasks Imams on wealth creation, self-reliance

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By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.

National Chief Imam of Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society Imam Fuad Adeyemi, has called on Muslim clerics in the country to engage in wealth creating ventures that would make them economically self-reliant.

Imam Adeyemi made the call in his opening remarks at a two-day Capacity Strengthening for empowerment organised for Imams by Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society on Sunday in Lokoja.

He pointed out that training Imams on wealth creation had become imperative to enable them engage in fruitful ventures that would generate income for their personal and family needs without waiting for handouts.

Adeyemi explained that as clerics it was incumbent on the Imams to have something doing to generate income to meet their daily needs without waiting on anybody for their upkeep.

This, according to him, will make them to always speak the truth on issues in line with the precepts and directives of Allah and urged them to always unite and lead the people in the right ways instructed by Allah.

He noted that if the clerics had told the truth on the consequences of their actions, those causing crises in the country today would probably have had a change of heart.

According to him, when the islamic clerics become self-reliant economically, they would always have the mind to tell the truth without fear of favour.

Adeyemi who is known for his forthrightness on national and religious issues revealed that the Al Habibiyyah Islamic Society embarked on the training of clerics as part of efforts to altar the narratives.

He said that the Society signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and All Famers Association of Nigerian (AFAN) to train the Imams on skills and Agribusiness.

He hinted that the Society had also secured no fewer than 70 training slots for Imams adding that efforts were being made to partner SMEDAN with a view to sourcing funds for them to commence small scale enterprises on their own.

On the current electioneering campaigns towards 2023 General Elections, Adeyemi admonished politicians to based their campaigns on issues and not to run themselves down.

Also speaking, Abubakar Zakaria, Kogi State Coordinator of the National Directorate of Employment, commended Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society for partnering with the Directorate.

He said that the NDE had, for years been training individuals, groups and other categories of people in the bid to make them self-reliant and employers of labour rather than job seekers.

Zakaria said that free training opportunities abound in NDE adding that the Directorate was ready to train as many as would make themselves available in various skills and vocations to make them self-reliant.

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Empowerment

US based Pastor doles out scholarship to 300 students in Niger

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***Carpets FG over students loan scheme

The general overseer of the Glory House City Church, Atlanta Georgia United States of America, Pastor Chuzzy Udenwa has given scholarships to 300 students drawn from various high institutions of learning in Niger state to support their education.
The beneficiaries were picked from eight tertiary instructions in the state which include Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State Polytechnic Zungeru, Niger State college of education, Federal Polytechnic Bida, Justice Fati Lami school of legal studies, Minna and Newgate University of Medical Sciences, Minna.
48 beneficiaries received instant cash of N50, 000 to support their education while the remaining ones were given different categories of scholarships.
The scholarships were given to the benefiting students during the two day Niger Inter Campus Fire Crusade organized by the Glory City Campus Fellowship Nigeria at the Niger State College of Education Minna, the state capital at the weekend.
Speaking at the well attended Niger Campus Fire Crusade, Pastor Udenwa said the decision to invade the Nigerian campuses for the crusade which has taken him to five states so far and Abuja was borne out of the need to pray for Nigerian students because of the evils that have taken over the campuses in Nigerian.
In addition to this, he pointed out that there is the urgent need to give back to the society through sponsorship of students who are at the verge of being thrown out of school due to lack of sponsorship.
According to him “there are a lot of evil in our campuses today that have pushed our children into cultism, drug abuse, Internet frauds, armed robbery, prostitution among others. We need to pray for these students.
“If you want to rebuild Nigeria today, you don’t start with the elders, you start with the students who are the leaders of tomorrow and you can only achieve this through engaging them, that is what informed the campus fire crusade.
“While we pray for them, we also give them financial supports in terms of scholarships to help those who can not meet up with their school fees. We give some financial supports and others full scholarships”.
He disclosed that 30,000 students across six states of Enugu, Anambara, Imo, Niger, Ekiti and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have benefited from the scholarship programme, adding that each of the crusades cost the ministry well over $30,000 aside the scholarship.
This according to him includes the transportation to and from the venue, feeding and hotel accomodations of students who traveled from a far distance.
Speaking on the federal government students loan scheme, Pastor Udenwa dismissed the loan scheme saying that such initiative will not work because the targeted beneficiaries will have no means of paying back the loan.
“Are you going to arrest the parents who did not have money to pay their children school fees in the first place, or are you going to arrest the students who don’t have job after graduation”, he queried.
He argued that “when you throw money at the students in the name of loan without changing their mindset it will be a waste of resources because they will see it as their own share of the national cake. It will not yield any impact.
“The system has affected the psych of the students, so you need to change their psych and way of thinking and mindset. There is so much corruption in the system, so such initiative will not work”, he added.
Pastor Udenwa said that it is high time the government hands off education and allow private individuals and institutions run the educational system while it plays a supervisory role, stressing that “in the western world, education is for the private individuals, sometimes it is a joint venture”.
He however warned that Nigeria must do something very quickly about growing population of its youths, adding that the country will soon explode if nothing is done about the students who graduate every year without jobs.

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FG to train 5m Nigerians annually to curb unemployment, poverty – Presidency

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The federal government has outline strategic plan aimed at creating job opportunities for five million Nigerians with various artisanal skills annually.

In the same vein it also also mbarking on the training of 500 inmates in all the Correctional Custodial Centres across the country, even as the beneficiaries will be granted N500,000 to start a business after the training.

Speaking with newsmen, Wednesday in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurial Education, Abiola Arogundade, said the initiative is targeted at reducing down the 133 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.

She explained that the initiative which entails collaboration with various countries, educational and financial institutions in the country would expose beneficiaries to the acquisition of artisanal skills that would not make them self relating but would be a source of earning the country the much sought after foreign exchange.

Arogundade explained that already her outfit has trained no more than 500 inmates in each of the correctional centres spread across the country in line with the objective.
“We’ve also started training in the correctional centres. We launched the scheme in Kuje. We took a few members from my office to the correctional centre to do an audit of the needs of the inmates.
“I’m happy to announce that we started conducting the assessment and auditing of the trainees. And I am happy to announce that every single person that we train there is also going to be certified.

“They will not be left behind. It’s the same curriculum that we have and we are partnering with global bodies to make sure that any skill you acquire in Nigeria is going to be recognised worldwide and we are happy to also announce that we have secured it for every single person in training. 

“At the end of their prison term and our training, we give each of the beneficiaries N500,000 to set up their businesses so they don’t become a second-time offender at a correctional centre. This scheme is ongoing. 

“So after Kuje Correctional Centre, we are moving to Suleja. We are going to try and duplicate this intervention in all our correctional centres across the country. 

“There are two dimensions to the training, we will be training artisans to build and we are going to employ them. We are also training the beneficiaries. “For example, if you are going to be a hairdresser, we train you on how to have the best skills in hairdressing. We empower you with the kiosk. Not only that, the kiosk will have three streams of income.
“You can use the kiosk for your main skill which in this case as I mentioned, will be hairdressing, you can use it for POS business and other ventures. 

“So we are partnering with the bank. They will supply the POS and also you can use it to charge phones. We are using that as a multi-purpose intervention for three streams of income which we are launching today and we will be giving it out to the beneficiaries after we train and certify them.

“We also want to announce that we will be starting the programme which we call MYTV videos. Online we told people to send a one-minute video on what their skills are. Once you upload your video, we train you.
“We are happy to announce that we got over 10,000 entries and we are at the stage where we are picking 2000 people to go through the free training. Part of the curriculum of the free training for your assessment is to write a business plan. Those who write a good business plan will be granted N500,000 to continue and upscale their business. 

“We are also working with the Bank for Industry.  We are working on something called training for Industries.
“Like I said before, our methodology is backward integration, so we are working with the Bank of Industry, to work with the private sector and we are training people to make sure they have the right skills that the industries are looking for. So we have started that assessment as well.

“We have had meetings with different ambassadors.  So what we are trying to do is to work with multinationals. Sometimes they complain about our citizens not having the skills.”

Speaking on the idea of introducing compulsory skill acquisition for Secondary School leavers, the presidential aide said: “I am in talks with the Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnic, Vocational and Technical Schools and we have being talking on how to introduce one skill for Senior Secondary School so that you come out with one skill and get even get certified. We started doing some research, so it’s something we think it’s important. It’s still work in progress.”

While revealing its collaborations with the Bank for Industry (BoI), Industrial Training Fund (IDF), Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), National Board for Technical Education (NBTC), Private Sector and others, Arogundade revealed an ongoing program tagged “The unlock program” aimed at empowering youths and guiding them on creating commercial and sustainable businesses.

She said: “We told people to send a one-minute video on what their skills are. Once you upload your video, we train you, we are happy to announce that we got over 10,000 entries and we are at the stage where we are picking 2000 people to go through the free training. Part of the curriculum of the free training for your assessment is to write a business plan.
“Those who write a good business plan will be granted N500,000 to continue and upscale their business.”

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NG-CARES: Kogi CSDA flags off Lab, borehole projects in Apata community

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By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.

KOGI Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA) has flagged off construction of a science laboratory block and Rehabilitation of a hand pump borehole for Apata community in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi.

Chief Dauda Momoh, General Manager of the Agency while presenting the Approval Letter and cheque for the commencement of the projects at Apata-Ipatun, said the two projects had a total envelope of N15 million.

He said that the two micro projects intervention were being executed under the Basic Services Infrastructure of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme.

The General Manager expressed delight that the Agency was making the desired impact and commended Governor Yahaya Bello for providing and supporting the World Bank-Assisted programme.

He noted that ordinarily, the World Bank stipulated a 10 per cent community counterpart contribution from benefitting communities but the state government in its bid to enable more communities to benefit, reduced the counterpart contribution to 2.5 per cent.

He urged the community to show personal interest in the projects and assume complete ownership saying, “This project is a grant. No government will later come to take it from you. It is yours, own it, protect it.”

The General Manager said the construction of the science laboratory and furnishings would take N13,699,614.00 while renovation of the handpump borehole takes N1,307,250 making a total of N14,976,864.00.

Presenting a cheque of N3,998,362.10 to the Community Project Management Committee (CPMC) chairman, Hon. Adekunle Babatunde, the General Manager charged the committee to judiciously utilize the fund.

He said that the pace of work would determine the release of the next tranche adding that they were lucky to have a royal father who is much interested in their welfare.

Chief Dauda Momoh appealed to well meaning citizens to help improve facilities in their various communities, citing the transformation of a CSDA health facility in Eika-Ohizenyi to a hospital.

He said that wife of the governor, Barr Amina Oyiza-Bello using her pet project, Hayat Foundation  reconstructed and equipped the health facility in Eika-Ohizenyi community and transformed it to a hospital.

In his remarks, the traditional ruler, the Olu of Apata, Oba Frederick Durojaiye Balogun thanked the state government and the Agency saying the flag-off of the projects was a dream true for the community.

“This is the appointed time God ordained for this project. if we fail to acknowledge your relentless efforts in making sure that this project is a reality today, that means that we are ingrates.

“The government has passionately, out of its kindness, favoured our community. And I want to say here today, we shall continue to support the government of the day and when necessary we shall do what is expected of us.

“This project, I assure you that I will personally supervise it to ensure that quality job is done here and at the end of it, we will take full ownership of this and take care of it. We are indeed, very grateful”, he said.

Chairman of the CPMC, Hon. Adekunle Babatunde pledged on behalf of members of the committee to ensure proper book keeping, quality and timely delivery of the project. (Ends)

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