By Armsfree Ajanaku
Socio Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC), a civil society organisation promoting the rights of FCT original inhabitants to access employment and empowerment opportunities has convened town hall meetings. Being implemented under the project of Promoting the Rights of Original Inhabitants in the FCT, the objective of the town hall is to connect FCT Original Inhabitants to various government-run employment and empowerment agencies. The project is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation through the Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED).
According to SERDEC Executive Director, Tijani Abdulkareem, the project is working towards improving access to employment and empowerment opportunities for FCT indigenes through series of initiatives and town-hall meetings. He explained that the target is to bridge the information gap, which Original Inhabitants face due to lack of regular updates on employment and empowerment opportunities in the FCT. To achieve this, SERDEC has convened stakeholders involved in employment and empowerment programs within the FCT to educate the Original Inhabitant youths on ways to access their programs and how to further get information on any activity they are to roll out in the future.
According to Abdulkareem, SERDEC will subsequently be hosting events to ensure FCT Original Inhabitants seeking access to employment and empowerment opportunities are able sit face to face with the public officials managing such programmes. The activities lined up include; town-hall meetings at the various Area Councils across the FCT, consultation meetings with stakeholders, press briefings, and training of youth leaders in various communities on how to access empowerment schemes. The SERDEC helmsman noted that the group has also been implementing publicity campaigns to increase awareness of the Original Inhabitant plights, while it is also in the process of finalising the production of code of standards to document best practices in the implementation of such programs.
He said: “Be assured that SERDEC is committed to ensure economic justice for the OIs through promoting access to the right information on employment and empowerment opportunities for the FCT OIs in order to improve their livelihood. The Original Inhabitant youths are expected to take maximum advantage of this townhall meeting to build their capacity on access to employment and empowerment opportunities in the FCT, as representatives from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria SMEDAN, Social Development Secretariat as well as the National Directorate of Employment would be sensitizing the audience on availability of their programs and how they can be accessed.”
SERDEC Executive Director also announced the launch of its ZOKWA technology platform, which he described as using tech solutions to further the employment and empowerment opportunities for FCT Original Inhabitants. “This platform is going to be introduced during the town-hall meetings and Original Inhabitant youth will be trained on how to navigate around it.”
