The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says it disbursed N26.5 million to 2,093 beneficiaries in Bauchi State from April 2019 to April 2023.

This is contained in statistics by Ibrahim Abdulkadir, NDE’s Principal Research Assistant 2, on Sunday in Bauchi.

According to the document, the directorate disbursed N4.525 million to 265 artisans and women under its Women Employment Branch (WEB) programme in 2019 to encourage skills acquisition and promote women’s participation in entrepreneurship activities.

In 2020, the agency also disbursed N15 million to 1,400 beneficiaries comprising 1,100 females and 300 males, to enable them to set up their businesses.

Similarly, 378 beneficiaries benefited from N6.030 million in loans in 2020 under its Micro Enterprise Enhancement Scheme (MEES) and Women Employment Branch (WEB).

The document further showed that this year, the directorate disbursed N1 million to 50 women to help them to expand their small businesses.

“Also, in line with the federal government’s policy on agriculture for employment, food sufficiency and wealth creation, the directorate trained 349 unemployed youth on animal fattening in Bauchi state from 2019 till date.

“This is to equip the trainees with modern methods of agricultural production, and the training was carried out under the Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (SADTS) of the NDE.

“Furthermore, the directorate recruited 334 graduate participants to undergo training in various government agencies under its Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP) with the aim of retaining those with prerequisite skills”.

(NAN)