Senator Kola Balogun has facilitated the training and empowerment of 390 women and youths from Oyo South Senatorial District in various skills acquisition.
The beneficiaries, from the nine local government areas in the senatorial district, were, on Monday and Tuesday, taken through a two-day training programme, held at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Auditorium, University of Ibadan.
The skills acquisition training and empowerment programme, facilitated by Senator Balogun, was conducted by the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA).
It was in collaboration with Loylinds Nigeria Limited, Moniquel Nigeria Limited, Gravy Train International Services Limited and Hakavod Global Services Limited.
The 390 beneficiaries were trained in cake, meat pie, doughnuts, chin-chin, egg rolls, liquid soup making, air freshener and disinfectant production.
The beneficiaries were taken through the various skills acquisition training by Mrs Omolara Daniel, Mrs Busayo Ojo, Mrs Vera Oshodin and Mrs Aishat Omope.
Speaking at the closing of the event, Senator Balogun, in company of his wife, Mrs Gbonjubola Kola-Balogun, said he was not doing the beneficiaries any favour as he was elected by the people to promote their welfare and development.
The vice chairman, Senate Committee on Youths and Sports Development emphasised the importance of skills acquisition, noting that it was a sure way to take the country out of the woods.
“In Nigeria of today, and in spite of the downturn, some us still have the hope and believe that tomorrow will be okay for the country and its people.
“Our election into public offices were made possible by you, the people. We are occupying public offices on behalf of the people. Any elected public office holder who is not promoting the welfare of the people will be answerable to God.
“In the last three years, my mind has been pre-occupied with training and empowering my people and this is what I have been doing in phases since then.
“The feedbacks we are getting from past beneficiaries of such training and empowerment programmes have been encouraging me to do more.
“As lawmakers, we were elected to do there things: making laws that are people-oriented; attracting federal presence and opportunities to take care of the interest of the people; and carrying out oversight functions that would be beneficial to the people.
“All these are geared towards human capacity development. Our parents trained and brought us up, relying majorly on their individual human capacity.
“Beneficiaries of trainings we carried out in the past are giving us feedbacks that they are making progress in their various fields of training and empowerment.
“It is on this note that I will implore all the beneficiaries of this skills acquisition training and empowerment to put into good use whatever you will be given as seed capital,” Senator Balogun said.
Speaking on behalf of other beneficiaries, one of the trainees and Youth Leader, Ido Local Goverment Area, Comrade Yusuf Akeem Oladele, thanked Senator Balogun for the opportunity.
He said the federal lawmaker had, by the gesture, made meaningful and positive impact in the lives of the beneficiaries and promised that the training and the seed capital would be put into good use.
Another beneficiary, Mrs Sakirat Najeem (aka Agbadun), from Ibadan North-East Local Goverment Area, also assured that the skills acquisition programme would yield positive results.
One of the instructors, Mrs Aishat Omope, expressed delight at the enthusiasm displayed by most of the participants and declared that more than 60 per cent of them would put the training and the seed capital into a good use.
“I am impressed by the turnout. I can see hope in most of the beneficiaries; many of them are burning with a zeal to start putting into practice what they learned during the two-day training.
“Money should not be a problem for them start off their businesses. They can start off with, at least, N25,000. In this regards, they should be grateful to Senator Kola Balogun who is giving them the seed capital.
“However, for future trainings, I will advise that such should be directed more at the youths. There is an increasing awareness and enthusiasm among the younger generation to embrace skills acquisition,” she said.
