Diamond Bank Donates Equipment to Skill Acquisition Centres in Lagos

Presenting the items, Diamond Bank team leader, Mr. Victor Ezenwoko, said it had always been part of the bank policy to lend necessary support to the less privilege or support any worthy initiative that is aimed at helping the downtrodden in the society.

He explained that the bank’s management decided to donate the items to the Skill Acquisition Centres in order to support the initiative of the Lagos State Government by not only helping the thousands of unemployed youths but by also providing them with necessary means of livelihood, adding that it is better to teach a man how to fish than to feed him with fish.

In her response, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope Adefulire thanked the bank management for the gesture, stressing that the donated items will complement the efforts of the State Government in providing adequate working tools for the trainees in all its acquisition centres.

The Deputy Governor explained that the primary reason for the establishment and expansion of the centres is to empower unemployed youths in order to prevent them from being idle or becoming miscreants.

While calling on other corporate bodies to emulate the kind gesture of Diamond Bank, Orelope-Adefulire stated that the centres also empowers women, both married and single, on skill acquisition so that they can contribute their quota to the society as well as reduce Gender Base Violence (GBV) in the State.

Earlier, in her welcome address, the Special Adviser to the Deputy Governor and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Riskat Akiyode said the initiative by the Diamond Bank is in response to government call for public/private participation in the training of unemployed youths in order to create more employment opportunities for them.

Akiyode further disclosed that the government has, through the Ministry trained over 32,000 unemployed youth, men and women over a period of three months on various skills as part of its expanded economic empowerment programme.
Some of the items donated include sewing machines, gas cooker, oven and other working tools.