Gov Nwifuru Empowers Street Traders With 1Billion Naira

By Our Reporter, Abakaliki

Ebonyi state Governor, Francis Nwifuru on Tuesday, flagged off one billion naira empowerment and skill acquisition training program for five hundred street traders drawn from major cities across the country.

Flagging off the program at the premises of Ebonyi Vocational College, Ochudo centenary city Abakaliki, Gov Nwifuru enjoined the beneficiaries to be focused, learn skills and get innovations for self reliance and economic advancement of the state.

The first phase of the empowerment program covered 500 street  traders empowered with(N2,000,000.00) two million naira each, to enhance their businesses.

The Governor appreciated stakeholders in the state for their support to his administration geared towards a better and more progressive Ebonyi state.

“So, it is not by force that you learn skill if you have what you are doing that is very much enormous to feed you. For those that don’t have what can put food on your table without struggle, bend down and learn the  skills ,get innovations and find a way of being very much enhanced so that at the of the day, you will not only get growth but you get development attach to it.

“It gives me a lot of courage after selecting people who can reason together with me to champion my charter of needs manifesto.

“I didn’t know I was going to enjoy the cooperation I am enjoying today, I didn’t know I will enjoy the support of most of our leaders.

On his part, the State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Business Development, Chief Oguzor Offia- Nwali noted that the state government is targeting 1,500 indigenes of the state for the empowerment programme.

He noted that the beneficiaries will receive their two million naira each as soon as they are done with learning the skills.

“The aim is to target 1,500 Ebonyians, we will take it in batches, the 1,500 beneficiaries will get N2 million each which amounts to N3 billion. We are taking the first batch of 500 persons which amounts to N1billion and that is what we have done today. We are training for a specific period of time and before they leave the training ground their accounts will be credited.

"The training will last as long as they can learn their various skills. We are not forcing them to learn particular skills; they are allowed to learn the skill they want and the beneficiaries were selected from the cities we visited,” he stated.