The federal government said it has commenced vocational training of inmates in the 241 custodial facilities nationwide.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Education, Abiola Arogundade, disclosed this during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
She said it is part of strategies to empower no fewer than five million Nigerians with various artisanal skills annually.
Arogundade said each of the inmates who acquired the training would be given a grant of N500,000 to enable them to start up their businesses.
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She said, “We launched the scheme in Kuje (Custodial Centre) after we took a few members to do an audit on the needs of the inmates.
“Every single person we train there is also going to be certified. We are partnering with global bodies to ensure any skill you acquire in Nigeria will be recognised worldwide.
“At the end of their prison term and our training, we will give them N500,000 to set up their business so they don’t become second-time offenders after leaving the correctional centres. This scheme is ongoing.
“After Kuje Correctional Centre, we are moving to Suleja. We are going to try and duplicate this intervention in all our correctional facilities.
“We are also working with the Bank of Industry. For instance, we will train the beneficiaries on how to have the best skills in hairdressing in a kiosk they can also use for POS and other business ventures.
“We are partnering with banks. They will supply the POS in a place where people can also come in to charge phones.
“We are using that as a multi-purpose intervention for three streams of income after we train and certify them.
“In the correctional centre in Kuje, they have already started things like fashion designs where they are using modern equipment. We are going to donate more state-of-the-art sewing machines.
“They complained a lot about computers hence we will be donating laptops. We have different modules for training. Some are for six months of training while others are for nine months.”
