FIIRO TRAINS 50 YOUTHS FROM DELTA STATE

 The Institute as part of its efforts to address the issue of unemployment and youths restiveness in the Niger Delta area trained 50 youths from Delta State drawn from Ubulu-Uku Youths Association under its National Techno-entrepreneurship Development Programme. The 3-day intensive techno-entrepreneurship development training took place at the Institute between Monday, 18^th January and Wednesday, 20^th January, 2016. The Director-General/CEO, Dr. (Mrs.) G.N Elemo during the opening ceremony informed the participants that the 3-day techno-entrepreneurship development training is centred on five technologies namely: Fish Smoking; Fruit Juice Production; High Quality Cassava Flour Production; Instant Pounded Yam Flour Production and Bread and Confectioneries baking which have been carefully selected to facilitate smooth take off by participants especially in terms of financial requirements and other logistics required to start an enterprise.

The DG/CEO further said that it has always being her joy to see youths taking up positions of leadership either in private or public sector though the new thinking and the paradigm shift is now self employment through encouragement and support for the youths to take up the challenge of setting up their own enterprises to become the Dangotes, the Otedolas, of tomorrow.

The Director, Extension & Linkage, Dr. Dele Oyeku in his remarks encouraged the participants to see entrepreneurship as the ultimate means of ending poverty, become employers of labour and legitimate means of becoming wealthy. Dr. C.C. Igwe (Director – CFET); Dr. E.N Dike (Director- Biotechnology); Mrs. Olubunmi Adesanya (Director – PTTIM); Dr. Yemisi Asagbra (Director – PALM); Mr. J.O Oderinde (Director – Finance & Accounts) and Engr. S.K Adeyemi (Head, PDD) also made positive remarks to encourage the participants during the opening ceremony.

At the Closing ceremony on Wednesday, 20^th January, 2016, the DG/CEO, Dr. (Mrs.) G. N Elemo congratulated the participants and encouraged them to take the big step of starting their own enterprises no matter what the challenges could be. She also informed them of the opportunity for project funding through the Institute’s collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BoI), a Federal government owned development bank charged with the responsibility of funding projects in Nigeria be it small, medium or large.  She was also of the opinion that the Youths Association could work with the Local Government, State government and the political leadership of their constituencies to establish Cluster Processing Centers to fast track enterprise take off for those who could not afford to buy processing machinery and equipment immediately. As such, they could take their raw materials to the centers, process them for a token fee and market their products until they could raise sufficient funds to acquire their own processing equipment.

Before the DG/CEO, Dr. (Mrs.) G.N Elemo issued certificates of participation to the participants, a representative of the participants thanked the management of the Institute for the rare opportunity the Institute gave to them to participate in the training. He said the training has been an eye opener to most of them who are now thinking differently and set to seize the opportunity presented to them to set up their own enterprises against all odds to become employers of labor and of course their own bosses.