Hope Afresh Foundation, an initiative of Mrs Anna Ishaku, wife of the Taraba Governor, has presented cheques for N250,000 to some beneficiaries of its skills acquisition training.
Making the presentation in Jalingo, Mrs Ishaku called on the beneficiaries, trained at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), to go out and make a difference in the society by becoming employers of labour
The wife of the governor said the amount, presented to each of the graduands of the programme, was a loan with a nine per cent interest rate, payable over a period of six months.
Ishaku explained that the loan was to enable them to set up businesses in areas they had been trained, to make them self reliant.
“Hope Afresh Foundation Taraba has so far trained over 5,000 people across the state in vocational skills aimed at making the people self reliant,” she said.
She thanked the financing partners, CBN and Taraba Micro Finance Bank, for the success of the programme.
Ishaku urged the beneficiaries not to misuse the funds but channel them into businesses to become self reliant and boost the state economy.
Earlier, Mr Idris Bawa, the Programme Director of EDC in the North East region, commended the wife of the governor for her efforts in training the youth.
Bawa urged the beneficiaries to put to use the skills they had learnt during the training.
According to him, EDC will continue to support the graduands to access services and funds for their businesses.
He explained that EDC had so far trained 12,000 people across states in the North East, including 450 in Taraba, between April and August.
The CBN representative, Mr Nura Boyiga, urged the beneficiaries to utilise the loan judiciously.
Boyiga also encouraged them to form cooperatives and apply to the CBN for linkage with commercial banks for easy access to further loans.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Deborah Tyopuusu, commended the wife of the governor for her efforts to reduce poverty and check unemployment among the teeming population of the state.
Tyopuusu described Mrs Ishaku as a God-send to the people of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 200 people, who graduated from the training, were presented with certificates.
They were advised to quickly complete documentation with the Taraba Micro Finance Bank to access the loan facility. (NAN)
YGA/AOS/IA