About 10, 000 women, mostly widows and persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency are to undergo basic training on skill acquisition and entrepreneurship under an initiative of the federal government.
This was disclosed during the opening ceremony for the training in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Tuesday.
The United Nations and Government of Japan are supporting the three-day training, which is being organised by the Federal Ministry of Women and Social Development.
The Minister, Jummai Alhassan, who was represented at the opening of the training, said the programme is part of a federal government initiative designed to provide basic skills for self-reliance to about 370,000 women across the country.
A director in the ministry, Koko Usman, who stood in for the minister, said the federal government had initiated two key programmes to empower the Nigerian women.
The Borno State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Fanta Shehu, said a total of 150 women selected from the 27 local government areas of the state would be trained in the first batch of the exercise.
A consultant and facilitator of the programme, Abdulrasheed Musa, said the women are to be trained in soap making, tye and dye, fruit juice making, and baking.
At the end of the three days training, successful participants are to receive at least N50, 000 each as capital to start their own businesses.
Deputy speaker of the Borno state House of Assembly, Danlami Kubo, commended the federal government on the initiative, even as he said the state lawmakers would expand the programme by sponsoring 50 women from each of the 28 legislative constituencies of the state for similar training.
By Abdulkareem Haruna (Premium Times)
