By; VITALIS UGOH, Calabar
Senator Gershom Bassey, representing the Southern Senatorial District of Cross River State is sponsoring a five-day training of 70 youth drawn from across the seven local government areas that make up the district on entrepreneurial skills.
The training is to help them start their own businesses.
The youth made up of male and female aged between twenty and thirty are undergoing the training at Transcorp Hotel Calabar.
The five days training will enabl3 them to acquire basic entrepreneurial skills on how to operate small scale businesses that would make them self reliant.
Mr.Enebieni Ana, former Chairman of Biase local government and the current Director Commercial Job Placement for the state in Abuja who declared the training open on behalf of Senator Gershom Bassey, said jobs have become scarce not only in Nigeria but globally.
Therefore, he said “so many people are taking the initiative of operating their own businesses rather than search for jobs that are not there”.
“Distinguished Senator Bassey realizes that the way forward is to groom these youths to acquire skill because white collar jobs are no longer there that is why he has set out to train them in areas that they can be self employed and also add value to the economy, he added”.
He said the undoing of most people is the expectation that after school a white collar job would be provided by the government.
According to him, “this assumption has become a mirage and so everyone has to acquire skill whether still in school or out of school to be self reliant”.
“This is the only way to structure the economy and not to continue to look up to the state government to provide jobs and to remain a civil service state.
I am happy that the Distinguished Senator has seen the need to empower these ones with veritable skills, he said.
The training is handled by the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency, SMEDAN on behalf of the Senator.