The National Directorate of Employment, Abia State office today held the orientation and loan disbursement ceremony for beneficiaries of the Start your own business (SYOB), Micro Enterprise Enhancement Scheme (MEES) and WEB shoe and bag trainees.
The State Coordinator, NDE Abia, Mrs Tessy Wachuku in her welcome address expressed her gratitude to the federal government and the Director General for the opportunity given to some of the youths of Abia State to start and enhance their businesses.
She further reiterated that it is a loan and not a grant which the participants are expected to pay back on monthly basis after the period of monetorium.
The three SYOB beneficiaries who are graduates are to receive the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N 500 000), the twenty (20) participants of the WEB shoe and bag making are to receive starter packs of twenty thousand naira (N 20,000) each to start their businesses and the seventy – four (74) participants of MEES will receive the sum of twenty thousand naira each (N 20,000) to enhance their existing small businesses.
Miss Victory Onuoha, a staff of Guaranty Trust bank gave a talk on banking culture, encouraging the participants to plan their finances and have a budget.
16 CONSTITUTIONAL ALTERATION BILLS SIGNED INTO LAW BY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI.
Mr Friday Ukaegbu, Head of the Small Scale Enterprises department also gave a talk on financial planning stressing the need for good record keeping and stock control.
The head of loans unit, Mr. Gospel Kanu sensitized the loan beneficiaries on the repayment plan for the various loan packages.
Mr James Okongwu, one of the MEES loan beneficiaries on behalf of all the participants thanked the Directorate for the privilege to be a part of the program and promised that they will make judicious use of the loan package.
He also shared his success story of how he was trained in poultry farming and today he is doing well.
The Head of department, small scale enterprise department in his vote of thanks, appreciated all the guests, resource persons and the participants for being a part of the ceremony and encouraged them to make good use of the loan packages.
It is worthy of note that the policy of the federal government to give 5% of the total number of participants in all NDE programmes to the physically challenged and vulnerable persons was implemented.
