SPDC, NDDC Empower 1,620 Women With Skills,

As a veritable means of boosting capacity and increasing
wealth portfolio in the Niger Delta, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of
Nigeria (SPDC) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have partnered
to empower 1,620 women with life-sustaining skills and helped them establish
small scale businesses that would enable them fend for themselves and their
families for life.

Receiving their certificates of merit and business starter
packs in Port Harcourt last Friday, the beneficiaries of the 2011/2012 LiveWIRE
Business Enterprise Training for Rural Women in the Niger Delta were full of
joy and excitement as they eulogised Shell and NDDC for triggering a turnaround
in their lives.

The 1,620 women are drawn from the nine Niger Delta states
of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

Out of the total number, Rivers stoked up 260 slots while
Bayelsa produced 200 emerging women entrepreneurs.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the beneficiaries,
Managing Director, NDDC, Dr Chris Oboh,
said the scheme was designed to leverage on the commission’s wide reach
to help improve the ability of the women to independently provide for
themselves and families as well as contribute their quota to regional and
national economic development.

Represented by the Director, Administration and Human
Resources, Dr Henrietta Ogan, the NDDC boss explained that the training
programme was stratified into three focus areas: pre-skill training, practical
training and post-training workshops designed to inculcate appropriate
mechanism towards enhancing sound business management skills in the areas of
planning, entrepreneurship, accounts, record keeping, managing people, products
marketing, intelligence for viable business opportunities, and award of starter
packs and start-up capital.

According to him, the NDDC/SPDC partnership “considers the
huge investment made on this programme as a critical step towards the qualitative
empowerment of our women,” and “hoped that the participants will utilize the
skills acquired by putting starter packs given to them into good use to improve
their individual lives and the advancement of their families and communities.

Also speaking, Managing Director, SPDC, Mutiu Sunmonu, said
the initiative was “in line with our philosophy of contributing to economic
empowerment and job creation for youths and women in the region, adding that
the LiveWIRE programme, which has produced 3,208 youth and women entrepreneurs
since 2003, aims to provide access to entrepreneurship training, business
development services as well as start-up capital to establish and expand
youth-driven businesses.

Sunmonu, who was represented by the General Manager, Nigerian
Content Development, Igo Weli, added that the beneficiaries of the scheme have
now created employment opportunities for thousands of youths across the region,
thereby contributing to the reduction of youth unemployment and poverty in
Nigeria.

The Shell country chair noted that the NDDC-SPDC Skill
Development Programme for Rural Women in the region, which was initiated in
September 2011, effectively kick-started last May with specialised training in
various trades, including interior decoration/soft furnishing, hair
weaving/fixing, beading and hat making, candles, soap, detergents and pomade
making, cosmetology, photography, videography, and tie and dye, among others,
conducted in 80 centres across the nine states.

Noting that SPDC cannot achieve sustainable development in
the region without the active collaboration of other actors in development,
Sunmonu tasked both private and public sector players to fashion viable
partnerships aimed at delivering on the needed social performance commitments
to achieve the desired impact and sustainability.

In his remarks, Rivers State Commissioner for Employment
Generation and Economic Empowerment, Dr Ipalibo Harry, thanked NDDC and SPDC
for empowering thousands of women and youths, especially those from Rivers and
Bayelsa states, and charged the overjoyed women to take advantage of the
opportunity to excel and empower others desperate to acquire similar skills,
own and manage their independent businesses.

Nelson Chukwudi