The Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Akwa Ibom North West, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over the weekend in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, flagged off the 2017 entrepreneurship training programme as part of his constituency empowerment project.

The flag off which drew 400 beneficiaries from across the 10 local government areas of the Senatorial District witnessed a massive turn out of women and youth groups from the state.

Addressing participants at the Council Hall, Ikot Ekpene, Senator Akpabio said the training programme was facilitated by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). He said the programme was aimed towards realising the goals of the National Enterprise Development Programme.

Senator Akpabio said the skills acquisition intervention would provide marketable technical and vocational training for youths and women and equip them with such skills that would enable them to be self-employed and be self-reliant.

The Senate Minority Leader said he was convinced that the participants would endeavour to utilise learnt skills to start and grow their personal businesses so as to achieve government policy goals of economic growth, poverty alleviation and employment generation.

According to Senator Akpabio, “This flag off signifies the beginning of our bold attempt to empower our people and eradicate poverty among you. This is also in line with the philosophy of the Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel. So we can say that we are complimenting the effort of the state and federal governments in poverty eradication.”

The event was attended by political leaders from the state and officials of SMEDAN and NDE who presented their goodwill messages. They applauded Senator Akpabio on this laudable initiative and enjoined him to extend it to other parts of the state.

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