Daily Chronicle
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), in Bauchi, on Monday, commenced a five day counseling clinic for 50 graduates on entrepreneurship development in the state.
The exercise was a collaboration between the NDE and the federal government’s Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) microfinance bank of the CBN.
Speaking during the commencement of the training, the Director General of NDE, Malam Abubakar Fikpo said the essence of the training was to equip the participants with the necessary knowledge of how to obtain loans from not only NIRSAL but other financial institutions.
Represented by the state Coordinator of NDE, Mr Ali Yaya, Fikpo said “NIRSAL microfinance bank will tell us all the packages they have so that at the end of this training, you will be able to write your own feasibility report.
“With such an articulated feasibility report, you would be able to go to any bank and seek for loans without any hindrance.
“By God’s grace, most of you will be able to get the loans to start your own businesses.
According to him, a series of lectures would be delivered to the participants on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial development as well as how to write a good business feasibility report, among others.
He advised the participants to listen attentively to the lectures and work hard to optimise opportunities given to them.
Earlier, Mr Jubrin Habeeb, Head of Department, Small Scale Enterprise (SSE), NDE, Bauchi, said that the training was also to sensitise the participants on how to keep their minds completely off white collar jobs.
He added that it was also to inject the spirit of entrepreneurship into the participants so as to become employers of labour.
In his address, Mr Yusuf Timothy, Credit and Marketing Officer, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Bauchi, said the bank has a lot of packages and urged the participants to visit the bank at the end of the training for more information and loan applications.
He added that the bank was strategically located at the post office of anyplace it has it’s office located for easy access by the rural communities.
Timothy, who revealed that the bank has branches in three Local Government Areas of the state, namely, Bauchi, Jama’are and Katagum LGAs, added that it would soon establish offices in all the 20 LGAs of the state.