By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
Vocational equipment that sat unused in government warehouses for more than five years has finally been recovered, refurbished and handed over to 18,510 newly trained Nigerian artisans, as the Federal Government began distribution of starter packs under the Renewed Hope Vocational and Skills Training Programme.
The disclosure was made by the National Coordinator and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency, Badamasi Lawal, at the closing ceremony of the training held in Abuja on Wednesday, 12 August, 2026.
Lawal described the development as a major step towards restoring productive assets and expanding economic opportunities for vulnerable Nigerians, noting that the beneficiaries, drawn from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, had completed two weeks of intensive vocational training at more than 230 accredited centres nationwide.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, commended the decision to recover and refurbish the long-idle equipment rather than allow public assets to decay in storage, describing the move as sound stewardship of public resources now placed in the hands of Nigerians who would use them to build businesses and create jobs.
He said the initiative reflected a shift in the government’s approach to poverty reduction, linking social intervention with skills acquisition, productive assets and enterprise development under what he termed the One Humanitarian, One Poverty Response system.
Doro explained that under the system, every Nigerian identified on the National Social Register sits on a pathway from registration to skills acquisition, to productive assets, to enterprise and ultimately to graduation out of poverty, describing the ceremony as that pathway made tangible, with training completed and equipment now in the hands of beneficiaries.
The National Programme Manager, N-POWER, Dr Nsikak Okon, said the Federal Government had deployed GPS technology and a dedicated monitoring system to track beneficiaries and ensure the refurbished equipment was properly utilised.
He explained that a portal had been created through which beneficiaries were enrolled and their locations monitored, alongside a call centre established to address any challenges, including defects discovered in the starter packs.
The beneficiaries were trained in a range of vocational trades, including automobile technology, agricultural technology, baking and confectionery, carpentry and furniture making, cooking and catering, electrical installation, housekeeping and hospitality, jewellery and bead making, masonry, plumbing, welding and fabrication, fashion design and sewing, grinding machine operation, and vulcanising and tyre services. Okon disclosed that each beneficiary received N60,000 as transport allowance for the two-week training period.
Lawal noted that the training went beyond technical skills, with beneficiaries also exposed to entrepreneurship development, financial literacy, business planning, customer relations and enterprise management, aimed at ensuring they could establish and sustain viable businesses with the recovered equipment.
Doro congratulated the beneficiaries and urged them to make productive use of the equipment, noting that they were leaving the programme not merely with certificates but with a trade and functional tools to put to work immediately. He commended their discipline in completing the training under real hardship, describing it as proof that Nigeria’s greatest resource lies in its people.
The Renewed Hope Vocational and Skills Training Programme forms part of the Federal Government’s broader social investment and poverty-reduction efforts, with the distribution of the recovered equipment expected to enable the newly trained artisans to put their skills into immediate use, create livelihoods and, in some cases, provide employment opportunities for others.
