About 2,051 Nigerians, who returned from Libya, have engaged in learning new trades between April 2017 and August 2018, the International Organisation for Migration has said.
The United Nations agency said 1,130 men and 921 women participated in business training in Lagos, Edo, Nassarawa, Kano and Kaduna states, where they learnt types of business they intended to launch, whether individually or in groups.
About 273 of them attended a business skills training in Lagos as part of their reintegration assistance organised by the IOM from August 27 to August 31.
The training on business skills and cooperatives was the 21st event held in Nigeria targeting returnees wishing to start businesses in their communities of origin, the group stated.
The IOM said on Friday that in addition to collective reintegration schemes, other returnees would be supported under community-based projects, such as fruit juice, palm oil, palm kernel and plantain processing factories in Edo and Delta states — where most assisted returnees originated from.
“These projects are intended to benefit not only the individual returnees but also their communities of origin. The training is now focused on having more sustainable businesses, and not just regular trading, buying and selling. We are concentrated more on agriculture-related business because they are more sustainable and will add more value to the returnees’ communities,” the Lead Trainer, Osita Osemene, said.
Osemene added that a returnee, named Anita from Benin City, had started her palm oil produce business under the individual reintegration scheme, while another group of returnees had started a fish farming business.
One of the trainees, Onyekachi, stated that before he travelled to Libya, he was into phone sales and repairs and palm oil production, but left his business to migrate due to economic challenges such as power outages.
“With this training, my dream will come true because I have been grouped into an agriculture-based business,” he said.
The training involved technical sessions focusing on entrepreneurship, bookkeeping, supply chain management, as well as recommendations to develop business ideas.
Returnees also attended sessions on ‘mindset reset’, where they had the opportunity to share experiences about their journeys abroad.
The training, it added, was organised under a joint initiative funded by the EU and implemented by the IOM in collaboration with the Nigerian government.
The organisation added that following the training, it would in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organise a job fair at the end of September where returnees would have the opportunity to meet private sector leaders in the country and search for job opportunities to match their skills.