The Enugu State Government said it began training and empowerment programmes for artisans and rural business owners to eradicate poverty and drive economic growth.

The state Commissioner for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chika Ugwuoke, disclosed this while interacting with journalists on Monday in Enugu.

He said the programme was part of government’s efforts to train and empower artisans and rural business owners such as traders, entrepreneurs in small and medium scale enterprises and others.

According to him, the Governor Peter Mbah administration is deliberate about eradicating poverty in the state through different stimuli and approaches that will spur economic growth in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

He explained that one of the aims of the exercise was to equip rural artisans with requisite skills needed to grow their business and become employers of labour in their areas.

The commissioner said the state would partner with the Enterprise Development Centre wing of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos to achieve the objective.

He added that the programme would help to transform the rural economy by boosting economic growth and development.

Mr Ugwuoke said the theme of the programmes revolved around rural businesses as agents of economic growth.

Three senatorial zones in the state would benefit immensely from it.

He encouraged artisans and business owners to turn up for the programmes. 

He further commended Mr Mbah for the support his administration was giving to the ministry to ensure its mandate was achieved.

He added, “You will recall that the governor promised that his administration will change the economic trajectory of the state by moving it from $4.4 billion to $30 billion to eradicate poverty and achieve a zero per cent headcount. If you look at what is happening in the state, you will observe that the journey to achieving these goals commenced long ago. Youths are being trained in digital and financial skills that will make them self-reliant and employers of labour. Market men and women are getting loan support and training from different programmes initiated by the state government. Today, what we’re doing is in furtherance to some of the key interventions we have carried out in the state.

“You are also aware that the poverty headcount index is highest in our rural areas and what we are doing with this initiative is taking the battle to the enemy ground. We want to teach our people skills that will migrate them from one man business operators to employers of labour. This is one of the ways we can eradicate poverty from our state.’’ 

(NAN)