260 youths, women benefit from NAFOWA empowerment scheme

About 260 youths and women have graduated from the 10th skills acquisition and vocational training programme of the Nigerian Air Force Officers’ Wives Association (NAFOWA).

The trainees include 130 youths and 130 women, who are largely unemployed or underemployed from within the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base in Abuja, and their surrounding communities.

The beneficiaries received their certificates during a colourful graduation ceremony, which took place at the NAF Base, Bill Clinton Drive, Abuja, after 12 weeks of intensive training in various vocational trades that included computer appreciation, tailoring, makeup artistry, hairdressing and barbing, catering, leather shoes and bags production, bead making, soap and disinfectant production, aluminium works, event decoration, photography and videography as well as soft furnishing.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Guest of Honour, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, applauded NAFOWA for its initiative, noting that it is in tandem with one of the key drivers of his vision, which is ‘human capacity development through robust and result oriented training for enhanced professional performance’.

He further stated that 2,310 women and youths have so far benefited from the skills acquisition and vocational training since inception, and have established various businesses in NAF barracks across the country.

According to him, the programme was a route to financial independence, self-reliance, prosperity and personal development.