The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), on Monday, reassured that the Federal Government is committed to the rehabilitation of displaced persons.

The Federal Commissioner of NCFRMI, Mrs. Sadiya Umar Farouq, gave the assurance at a capacity-building workshop for Bakassi returnees in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The beneficiaries, numbering over 60, were trained on Soap Making and Fish Processing and given a start-up kit and capital after the one week programme.

Farouq said that the Commission was looking beyond supporting displaced persons with relief materials but lifting them out of their present challenges and rehabilitating them economically to be self-reliant.

The Federal Commissioner who was represented by the South-South Zonal Coordinator NCFRMI, Mr. Akintunde Oyesanya, noted that giving the displaced persons skills and start-up capital would make them be self-reliant and easily reintegrated into the society.

She explained that the 64 beneficiaries many of whom had been at a makeshift camp for more than 10 years were provided with soap making and fish processing kits as well as a take-off grant as capital.

Farouq said that NCFRMI had extensive counseling sessions with the selected beneficiaries to discourage them from selling the start-up equipment donated to them and resorting to dependence on handouts.

According to her, the training curriculum included entrepreneurship education, marketing as well as small business management skills.

She said that the trainees would be mentored, monitored and given further financial support to further expand their businesses and make them employers of labour.

One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Esther Mike, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government and NCFRMI for the new approach to managing the welfare of displaced persons.

“I am glad to be selected for this pilot scheme; this approach of empowering people with skills, starter kits and capital is going to change the life of people who were dependants to being self-sustaining.

“I was trained for five days in soap making and the training was practical and I mastered it so much and with the kit provided and capital, I am ready to go into business, I believe I can now support my family,” she said.

Another beneficiary in Fish Processing and Leader of Bakassi Returnees in Bayelsa State, Mr. Jeremaih Jerry-Wemi, noted that the scheme would improve the standard of living of the displaced persons.

He appealed to the Commission to increase the skills areas covered to give displaced persons more choices and increase their chances of survival, “because when people choose to do what they love, it makes them more likely to succeed.”

He commended the Commission for the initiative noting that “it is well thought out and I am very optimistic that most of the 64 beneficiaries, majority of who are women would succeed and make it,” Jerry-Wemi said.

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