Saturday, December 1, 2018 will forever linger on in the memory of not less than 1, 000 youths in Akinde community, Ajegunle, in Ifako/Ijaiye local government area of Lagos after the Salis foundation owned by the Alliance for Democracy governorship candidate in the state, High Chief Owolabi Salis, graduated, having learnt various vocations.
Chief Owolabi Salis who expressed satisfaction at putting smiles on the faces of the over 1000 participants of the scheme titled Lagos youths skill acquisitions and empowerment programme revealed that there are three centres in the local government and 40 across the state.
Chief Owolabi Salis inspecting graduating students
The vocational training which cuts across different trades such as home essentials, shoemaking, fashion design,
The coordinator of the scheme in the local government, Hon Oluwaseun Faturoti, while speaking with City People’s Damilare Salami revealed that the scheme had three different centres in the local government namely; Awori U-turn, Alakuko and Akinde Community in Ajegunle.
He further noted that not less than 2, 000 youths have been taken away from the street and crime and have been gainfully employed as a result of the training provided without any charges by the Salis Foundation.
Meanwhile, Chief Mrs Olabisi Salis, the co-sponsor of the scheme encouraged the participants not to limit themselves to what they had learnt during their training alone but to work on improving themselves especially in the areas of branding and marketing.
Chief Mrs Olabisi Salis t alking to the people
She said: “look at your left and right side, the person you are seeing there is your number one competitor. You have to be better than him/her in terms of service delivery for you to be able to get a market for yourself.
“You will be able to beat your competitors when you go online and offline to get materials to make you better than an ordinary person. Everything around you can give you an idea about how to develop your brand but it doesn’t remain there. You also need to add value to what you do. It is the extra value that will help you retain and increase your customer base.”
Chief Salis while speaking to newsmen about the source of fund for the huge money-consuming project said:
“I have been financing this project from my pension, I’m based in New York and I have my private pension from which I finance it. When we did the first and saw how successful it was and the benefits the people got from it, we decided to expand it to about 40 centres and since people don’t have the finances to transport themselves to Somolu where the first centre is situated, we decided to bring it closer to them by having centres in various local government areas.
“This is not political, I started a long time ago and whether I win the election or not, the scheme will still continue because all that matters to me is the well being of the people. If I win the election, we are going to take it to the next phase because there are certain things that need to be done here but we cannot because of the enormous resources involved; particularly setting up industries and factories to empower more people.
“I just like taking care of people, I’m not just doing it here alone, I do it in New York as well. I’m one of the sponsors of the Martin Luther King’s mathematics competition which provides finances for young brilliant students. The scheme is for everyone, it is a social investment and not political at all. Whether you are APC, PDP or AD, what matters to me is giving people a better life and I’m happy doing it.
The event which held at the Akinde palace had in attendance, Chief Ekerin Akinde, Pastor Omotunde Samuel, Chief Sanya-Olu, leader of the widow’s forum, Mrs Agbaje, AD vice chairman in Ikorodu, Alhaji Kamorudeen Famoroju, Coordinator, Lagos youths skill acquisitions and empowerment programme, Ifako Ijaiye LG, Hon Oluwaseun Faturoti, Assistant coordinator, Mr Oluwatobi Akindele, High Chief Musibau Balogun, Bashorun of Ojokoro land, to mention but a few.
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