At least 500 male and female food vendors in Kano Senatorial District have benefited from an empowerment programme targeted towards curbing cholera outbreak and the use of firewood in cooking.
The programme is an “Empowerment Programme for Training Certification, Kitting and support for Micro Trades on Hygiene knowledge and application in and around their environment in Kano Central,” facilitated by the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Senator Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano North).
The intervention, which included charcoal burners, covered plastic containers and N20,000 cash also saw some barbers getting clippers and other equipment.
The Registrar/CEO of EHORECON, Dr Baba Yakubu Mohammed, who represented the Minister of State for Environment, said: “The essence of coming is to build the capacity of these identified food vendors; i.e. beans cake (akara/kosai) sellers and tea vendors, as they play a major role in bringing food to the table of ordinary people of Kano State.”
He said the council believes that the capacity building will serve as an intervention to reduce the transmission of cholera.
He said the starter-kits were also in line with the federal Ministry of Environment’s mandate to reduce the usage of firewood in small trades which in turn will help reduce carbon monoxide in the atmosphere and also address climate change issues.
In his remark, Senator Shekarau said the gesture was aimed at building the capacity of Kano people on modalities of addressing the spread of communicable diseases like cholera.
