The National Personal Asset Acquisition Scheme (NAPAAS) has empowered a set of 70 widows, who are family members of retired Nigerian Legion (ex-servicemen) with skills acquisition training on how to develop Made-in-Nigeria products, to support themselves and their families especially in this period of COVID-19.
This was part of a workshop aimed at bringing them together to mark NAPAAS Widows/Children of the Fallen Heroes Day, which is ongoing in Abuja.
Speaking to reporters during the programme on Friday, the national project coordinator of NAPAAS, Engr. Eze Nnadi, said after the training, a mechanism would be created to monitor the beneficiaries who will then be grouped to obtain a registration number from the National Agency for Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for their products.
“We are starting with first set of 70 widows, when we finish the training, we are getting a single NAFDAC number for some products for them and we will run an out-grower business with them grouping them for the products then we will now fund them,” Nnadi said.
He added that the training and skill acquisition was initiated to ameliorate some of the challenges, especially financial challenge being faced by the widows, who have lost their loved ones, saying “we are trying to bring them back to the society and remove them from that poverty level.”
He said further that “We have had this training before for 50 people, so we want to upgrade it to 70 because we are now going to train them on other things. We want to expand to agriculture and we will now group them to fund their projects. We are organizing them under states and their various associations.”
He added that NAPAAS and its foreign partners have also given out tricycles and motorcycles to widows and their children at affordable prices and will continue to do more.
