The Enugu State Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Centre is currently training 350 youths on automobile panel beating, painting and artwork.
The Head of the centre, Mr Arinze Offiah, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Friday.
Offiah said the centre was organising the training in collaboration with Auto-Ease Ltd., an Enugu-based automobile body building/painting/craft company.
He said the state subsidised the training fee by over 50 percent, adding that the remaining cost would be repaid by the trainees on a zero-interest rate for over a period of two years.
According to him, the training, which started in October 2020, will last for eight months.
“The training, which goes for between N300,000 and N400,000, was reduced to about N90,000. They will payback without any interest after their training. The centre’s partner in the project, Auto-Ease Ltd., has offered to hire 100 of those being trained at the end of the training,” he said.
He said the centre believed that the trainees would be able to pay back within the stated period.
Offiah said the centre was looking at the possibility of expanding the training partnership with Auto-Ease to accommodate additional 150 youths before the end of 2021.
He said, “The Enugu SME Centre is highly focused on human capital development. We want our youths to develop, nurture entrepreneurial skills and be determined to survive in any type of economic reality.”
