Maiduguri – The North-East Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Sunday distributed 50 knitting machines to 50 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), trained under its Economic Empowerment Initiative.
Alhaji Idris Bawa, the EDC Director of Programme, distributed the machines in Maiduguri.
He said the objective of the programme was to provide means of livelihood to the IDPs who had lost some of their worldly possessions.
He said the 50 women were part of the 2, 127 Borno IDPs so far trained in different skills by the centre under the programme.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“The programme started in March with 747 IDPs in Yola out of which 434 IDPs were Borno indigenes.
“We also continued the training with selected participants from five IDP camps in Borno’’, he said, pointing out that the programme was packaged through A.I. Development Services.
“As part of our social responsibilities, we expended over N10 million on the trainees who were expected to pay mandatory fee of N5,000 each.
“We also spent N1.3 million in the purchase of the 50 knitting machines and kits presented to the IDPs’’, he said.
Dr Babagana Umara, Borno State Commissioner for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, urged the beneficiaries to make optimum use of the machines to improve their living conditions. (NAN)