2,000 youths have graduated from the Fashion Future Programme, a skills development and entrepreneurship initiative driven by Ethnocentrique Limited with support by the MasterCard Foundation.
Seventy percent of the 2,000 graduates, aged between 18 and 32, are women, while about five percent are persons living with disabilities.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held at the Enyimba Stadium Aba, Governor Alex Otti who commended the life-changing initiative and model of inclusive empowerment, emphasized the need to empower youths inorder to be self reliant.
He announced plans to upscale the state’s skills acquisition initiative to empower over 5000 beneficiaries in two phases.
“So the first of 2,000 is gone another 3,000 is coming and I have challenged Rosie(Country Director of MasterCard Foundation) after the 3,000 we will be doing 5,000.
“The challenge is “do we have a market?”, the answer is yes. We have a market in Abia, Nigeria, West Africa and in the rest of the world”, Gov Otti noted.
The Governor applauded the MasterCard Foundation and Ethnocentrique Limited for their commitment to the programme, which has run successfully for the past 10 months.
“There can’t be anything better than this. I want to thank you. I am so happy with the outcome of this entire process. I have also been told that 100 per cent of the 2,000 already have jobs.
“I hear about a 100 of you wanted to be employers of labour and that is very very good and I congratulate you.
“That is the spirit of average person. We are born entrepreneurs. Poverty and unemployment have no business in Abia State”, Gov Otti stated
He assured that the Abia State Government will remain committed to the project’s continuity and pledged collaboration with financial institutions like the Bank of Industry and other commercial banks to support graduates in setting up their businesses.
Governor Otti who used the opportunity to showcase Made-in-Abia Akwete fabric which he proudly wore to the event, made a case for the commercialization and need to export the fabric.
In her remarks, the CEO of Ethnocentrique Limited, Mrs. Irunna Ejibe, said the 2,000 graduands were trained using apprenticeship model, learning technical skills with master craft professionals and soft skills at the Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic Aba.
She highlighted the value of equipping participants with business, branding, negotiation, and customer service skills to foster a mindset shift.
“Everybody here requires access to market, finance, opportunities to go to the next level and we believe that in partnership with you all that it will be possible.
Earlier, the Nigeria Country Director for the Mastercard Foundation, Rosy Fynn described the Fashion Future Programme aa a platform that enables youths to unleash their potentials adding that graduands are the next generation of artisans, business owners and the oil that will help drive Africa’s creativity.
She reaffirmed the Foundation’s vision to help 30 million young Africans secure dignified jobs by 2030, with 10 million targeted in Nigeria alone.
