The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Kano State says it has trained women on production of face mask to stem further spread of coronavirus.
The agency said the training was also part of its continuous efforts to tackle unemployment.
The Kano State Coordinator of NDE, Alhaji Iliyasu Ahmed, made this known on Monday at a training organised for the beneficiaries at the NDE Skills Centre in Kano.
Ahmed said that the training was organised in collaboration with Future Assured Initiative of First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari.
He said that the women who were tailoring trainees of NDE would produce 20,000 safety face masks for the people of the state.
Ahmed said that the training was part of the Directorate’s mandate to drastically reduce unemployment and poverty among youths and women.
He said that the agency was on the verge of recruiting 44,000 artisans in Kano.
“After the recruitment, we are going to train and engage special public works such as clearing of drainage, sweeping of roads and beautification.
“We also trained over 2,000 youths on cosmetology, fashion design, welding and GSM repairs,” he said.
Ahmed explained that the Directorate’s Micro Enterprise Enhancement Scheme (MEES) had also empowered 10,000 people and offered each of them N10,000 soft loan to boost their businesses.
He noted that most of the beneficiaries of the soft loan were women running petty businesses.
“These are the activities and empowerment programmes we had from January 2020 till date. Hopefully, we shall empower more youths and women under our various departments in the directorate,” he said.
NAN
