The Federal Government has commenced the distribution of starter packs to 18,510 Nigerians trained under the first batch of the Renewed Hope Vocational and Skills Training Programme, an initiative of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) aimed at equipping beneficiaries with the tools needed to start businesses and become self-reliant.

The beneficiaries, drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, underwent two weeks of intensive vocational training at more than 230 accredited centres across the country.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the programme in Abuja , the National Programme Manager, N-POWER, Doctor Nsikak Okon, said the Federal Government had deployed GPS technology and a dedicated monitoring system to track beneficiaries and ensure that the starter packs were properly utilised.

He said the agency had created a portal through which beneficiaries were enrolled and their locations monitored, adding that a call centre had also been established to provide support and address challenges encountered by participants.

Okon stated the monitoring mechanism was also intended to promote transparency in the distribution of the starter packs, noting that beneficiaries could access details of the equipment assigned to them through the portal.

He further said that they have sent messages to all the 230 training centres, emphasizing that beneficiaries could reach them if they discovered issues with the starter packs.

The beneficiaries were trained in a range of vocational trades, including automobile technology, agricultural technology, baking and confectionery, carpentry and furniture making, cooking and catering, electrical installation, housekeeping and hospitality, jewellery and bead making, masonry, plumbing, welding and fabrication. Others included fashion design and sewing, grinding machine operation, vulcanising and tyre services.

Okon also revealed that each beneficiary received N60,000 as transport allowance for the two-week training period.

The NSIPA National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer, Badamasi Lawal, described the completion of the training as a major step towards restoring productive assets and expanding economic opportunities for vulnerable Nigerians.

Lawal said much of the equipment being distributed had remained in storage for more than five years before the Federal Government decided to recover, refurbish and deploy them to Nigerians trained to use them.

He noted that the training went beyond technical skills, as beneficiaries were also exposed to entrepreneurship development, financial literacy, business planning, customer relations and enterprise management.

According to him, the broader objective was to ensure that beneficiaries not only acquire vocational skills but also developed capacity to establish and sustain viable businesses.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Doctor Bernard Doro, described the programme as part of the Federal Government’s strategy to move beneficiaries from temporary relief to sustainable livelihoods.

Doro said the initiative represented a shift in the government’s approach to poverty reduction by linking social intervention with skills acquisition, productive assets and enterprise development.

The minister also commended the Federal Government’s decision to recover, refurbish, and deploy vocational equipment that have sat warehoused across the country for years. 

Doro congratulated the beneficiaries and urged them to make productive use of the skills and equipment provided to them, further stating that the beneficiaries were leaving the programme with more than certificates, having acquired practical skills and equipment that could immediately support income-generating activities.

The Renewed Hope Vocational and Skills Training Programme forms part of the federal government’s broader social investment and poverty-reduction efforts, with emphasis on skills development, access to productive assets and support for small-scale enterprise.

The distribution of the starter packs is expected to enable the newly trained artisans to put their skills into immediate use, create livelihoods and, in some cases, provide employment opportunities for others.