By Vivian Emoni

The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) says it has trained women and youths on various skills acquisition to help them become self-reliant and contribute to national development.

Mr Agabaidu Jideani, Director-General of ACCI, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Jideani said that the chamber trained the women in digital technology, welding, networking opportunities, digital marketing and other vocational trainings.

He said that the training was aimed at ensuring that the women and youths had strong means of livelihood to enable them support their families.

“The ACCI is committed to ensuring that we give our people, especially the women, adequate training in various fields through which they can then raise economic status of their families.

“The essence is to bring out the potential in women, to seize their economic opportunities by learning how to boost their productivity and maximise income.

“This effort will help them become financially stable, as joblessness is a major cause of insecurity in the country.

“Women have good potentials for greatness but they need a little push. The training will also support them to have viable source of livelihood,” he said.

The ACCI boss said that the chamber believed it was important to help women and youths acquire skills so that they will not consider anti-social behaviours or crime as an option for their daily survival.

He said that a lot of women were passing through challenges, hence the need for such economic impact training.

Jideani said that ACCI was planning to run an international women trade forum.

“This forum is specifically for women. The chamber is out to support women in business and in marketing,” he said.

The D-G said that ACCI had collaborated with various international organisations, adding that the essence was to strengthen the forum.

He said that the ACCI had succeeded in sending about 12 women to Canada for training and business.

“We took them for business and for an exhibition, to go and see what they had learned, exhibit their potentials and acquire more knowledge.

“We are helping them to be able to internationalise and support their products.

“The effort is for the women to see the good thing others are doing, emulate them, learn more and teach people,” he said.

Jideani also said that the ACCI had a “Best Centre”, where women and youths were trained on better ways to cultivate and succeed in farming.

He said that the chamber would ensure that the people were registered before offering them the training.

“We have trained a lot of women and youths, both in the FCT and outside the city.

“As part of efforts to enhance entrepreneurship development among women in small and medium enterprises, the ACCI will continue to support them in marketing, digital sales and business networking to improve their capability,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Constance Athekame/Kadiri Abdulrahman