FG rolls out exit plan for participants of 774,000 jobs 

By ADANNA NNAMANI, Abuja

Participants of the Federal Government’s  774,000 jobs will undergo a Basic Business Training (BBT) aimed at exposing them to the basic rudiments of identifying and running micro and small business enterprises.

According to a statement by Edmund Onwuliri, the Deputy Director Information and Public Relations, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the training is part of the exit strategy being rolled out for the participants of the programme.

The 774,000 jobs described as a transient job scheme that lasted for three months and was conducted under the Extended Special Public Works (ESPW) Programme of the Federal Government and implemented by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

Onwuliri explained that the training was scheduled to hold at a central venue in each of the three senatorial districts across the country and three locations within the FCT.

According to him, participants are expected to acquire the relevant skills that will enable them identify and manage micro and  small businesses of their own after they exit the Extended Special Public Works programme.

He said, “While engaged in the three-month programme, participants were actively engaged in activities within the public works sector where they provided services such as environmental sanitation services in public places, drainage clearing and desilting, vegetation control, road traffic management and other community based and environment specific public works services.

“While providing such services, participants were paid a stipend of N20,000.00 per month for the period of three months that the programme was designed to last. One thousand unskilled persons were recruited from each of the 774 local government areas of the nation. It is expected that the training will further enhance the capacity of the participants to migrate from the transient job phase to a sustainable and self-reliant status thereby reducing mass unemployment among the unskilled and unemployed across the country.”  (Daily Sun)