223 total views today
By Angela Atabo
Excitement was visibly written on the faces of women and youths as they acquire catering and baking skills for sustainable source of income in the face of unemployment.
The more than 200 participants are undergoing a two-day free empowerment training programme organised by the Ambassador Peter Orobor Foundation (POF) in collaboration with Manna Cook and Bake Global Empowerment Initiative (MCBGEI) in Abuja.
Some of the skills taught included cake making, butter cream and foundation decoration, doughnuts, egg roll, scotch egg, peanuts and chinchin, meatpie and sausage rolls, fish rolls and kokoro, spring rolls, samosa, mock tail and local drinks, bread, shawarma and grills.
One of the beneficiaries, Ms Davida Etuk, teenager and student, described the training as a game changer for her because she learnt a rare skil of burger making and others.
The visibly excited Etuk said: “I was opportune to learn bread making, shawarma and burger. I really enjoyed the class, it was interactive.
“Now I know how to make burger myself, it is not everyday business, It is not like the egg roll, doughnuts that everybody gets to do everywhere.
“So since it’s not everybody that does the business you will stand out. That was why I decided to learn it.
“I also learnt how to make red velvet cake, other cakes, samosa and spring rolls so that I can make small chops and sell around to make money.”
She commended POF for the opportunity, which enabled her to know how to make pastries for commercial purpose to empower herself to support her family and education.
Other participants told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the present economic situation was biting hard so there was need to seek alternative income to meet up with the growing needs of their families.
Mrs Anwuli Eric, a home economics teacher with Saint Aloysius Secondary School, Garki Abuja, said her friend told her about the training.
“I came yesterday to learn how to make coated peanut because I want to be doing something by the side to be earning little money to cushion the effect of transportation fair,” she said.
One of the instructors, Mrs Linda Etute, the Director, Manna Cook and Bake Global Empowerment Initiative, said the skill acquisition programme was meant to empower women and youths.
“Thought of this free empowerment programme because we know that the society is battling with people who have no jobs, who have nothing doing.
“So in order to help women that are in their homes who have no opportunity to learn anything, we introduced this free programme because they don’t need to pay anything here, all they need to do is just come and acquire a skill.
“We also know that with the economy now a lot of young people are hanging around without jobs, some are on vacation from school, so it is an opportunity for them to pick a skill.
“I started from learning a skill, from there I fell in love with cake making, you never can tell where this will lead you, you might end up using it when you graduate without job to earn income for yourself.
“We have 11 skills here and they are so powerful, they are what you can learn within two days and we are also offering mentoring opportunities to keep helping them improve on what they have learnt.”
Dr Peter Orobor, the President of Ambassador Peter Orobor Foundation, said skill acquisition programme was part of the foundation’s mandate to empower women, men and youths yearly.
According to Orobor, some are trained on scholarship in school, some get trained and empowered with skill acquisition of various trades.
“This year, we partnered with Manna Foundation to train people on catering, baking and pastries.
“From what you can see so far a lot of participants are already testifying that they have learned a lot and they are happy that they came.
“So we hope that after this training, some people that do not have job will be able to use this knowledge to start something knowing that the environment we are in today needs a lot of caterers; so it’s very viable at a time we are in.
“We worked on training 220 persons and my advice is for them to take the training seriously; we also gave them the opportunity to call for mentorship and set up businesses and source for loans.”
Orobor advised the Federal Government to put more resources into skill acquisition programmes so that people would be self sufficient since there are no enough white collar jobs.
He said that entrepreneurship is the most guaranteed way for a country to survive at a time like where resources are not enough for government to actualise its plans for its citizens to enable them contribute to the economy.
On his part, Mr Odion Emonyon, the Managing Partner, Odion Emonyon and Co, and Member, Board of Trustee POF, said Nigeria is having financial stress in terms of employment.
“So as key stakeholders in the economy, we try to motivate our people so that they will not just fold their hands and say, I cannot feed myself, I cannot feed my family, the economy is bad.
So we decided to empower people, and selected a few of our people that are not well to do financially to undergo the programme free of charge.”
He also called on the government to look at the down trodden by giving them start up funds for their businesses to thrive.
He also advised other Nigerians to acquire skills regardless of the qualifications they have so as to help their families to be financially sustainable. (NAN)
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola
