The traditional ruler of Onigbongbo in Lagos, Oba Munirudin Olatunji Yussuf, has reserved praises for Nollywood actress, Fisayo Ajisola, for training people in his community in different areas such as baking/confectionery, make-up artistry, ICT/graphics/web design and bead making.
Speaking with newsmen at the opening of the one-week free training exercise, Jewel Empowerment Foundation Skill Acquisition Programme (JEFSAP) at Onigbongbo town hall, Maryland, Lagos recently, the traditional ruler was optimistic that the gesture would be beneficial to the participants as well as the entire community.
“I really appreciate this initiative because it will certainly be of benefit to the people of my community. I urge participants to take the programme seriously and passionately, and spread the knowledge gained from the training to others.
I also want to charge others to emulate the gesture of the JEF, because this is the only way people, especially the lower class, can be financially independent,” he said.
The president of Jewel Empowerment Foundation, Ajisola, said the NGO deliberately chose the community after the death of a hawker in Maryland, which led to the ban on street hawking by the Lagos State government.
“The movement has just begun. We are committed to joining hands with the government in taking people, especially the youths, off the street. This project is in alignment with the short movie, ‘Road To Ruin,’ that I produced recently. It is an advocacy film against child labour and the effective way to achieve this is to get children off the street and have them focus on education and train unemployed parents, young and adults with skills that will make them financially independent. We are ready to spread this campaign across and beyond this state so as to eradicate poverty in Nigeria,” she added.
