FG Launches Vocational Training Program, Offers N500,000 Grants For Prisoners

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Federal Government on Wednesday, announced the commencement of vocational training programs for inmates across 241 correctional facilities.

Upon completion of the skills acquisition program, beneficiaries will receive a grant of N500,000.

The vocational skills being offered include fashion design, computer training, hairdressing, fish farming, soap making, poultry business, and others.

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Abiola Arogundade, the Senior Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Technical, Vocational, and Entrepreneurship Education, disclosed this during a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday.

The Nigerian Correctional Service oversees a network of 241 custodial facilities, including 85 satellite custodial centers, 15 farm centers, two custodial open camps, four institutions, seven training schools, and non-custodial services nationwide.

She said, “We launched the scheme in Kuje we took a few members to do an audit on the needs of the inmates. Every single person we train there is also going to be certified. We are partnering with global bodies to ensure any skill you acquire in Nigeria will be recognised worldwide. At the end of their prison term and our training, we give them N500,000 to set up their business so they don’t become a second-time offender after leaving the correctional centre. This scheme is ongoing.

“After Kuje Correctional Centre, we are moving to Suleja. We are going to try and duplicate this intervention in all our correctional facilities. We are also working with the Bank of Industry. For instance, we will train the beneficiaries on how to have the best skills in hairdressing, in a kiosk they can also use for POS and other business ventures. We are partnering with banks. They will supply the POS in a place where people can also come in to charge phones. We are using that as a multi-purpose intervention for three streams of income after we train and certify them.

“In the correctional centre in Kuje, they have already started things like fashion designs where they are using modern equipment. We are going to donate more state-of-the-art sewing machines. They complained a lot about computers hence we will be donating laptops. We have different modules for training. Some are for six months of training while others are for nine months.”

Only 500 inmates from each facility will be considered after the official take-off of the pilot scheme in Kuje Centre, which currently has a capacity of 723 inmates.

While stressing that the targets are those who have few months left on their sentences, she disclosed that the programme was modelled after a similar scheme being run successfully in Norwegian prisons.

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She said, “Our target is to start with people closer to the end of their sentence so that as you regain your freedom, you leave with the skills and the N500,000 grant. We have looked at some case studies in other countries, like the Norwegian prisons to see what they did because they have a very low second time offenders rate. So we have been working with that very closely.”

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