The International Labour Organization’s Dutch funded ACCEL Africa Project in Nigeria has empowered 402 identified and trained business owners in cocoa producing communities in Ondo State with equipment to start their businesses.
Speaking at the event which held on 30 August 2022 at the Amazing Place Plaza, Oda Road, Akure, the ILO Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Vanessa Phala urged government, social partners, the media, Academia, NGOs, and donors to eliminate child labour by sustaining the project’s interventions through free education and tuition, decent learning environments and quality infrastructure for vulnerable children and their families.
According to Director Phala, the ACCEL Africa Project had trained the beneficiaries on the ILO’s Start Your Business Module to prepare adults and children of the legal working age for a school to business transition to improve their lives, impact their communities and build global brands.
“From your local communities, you could build international brands that stand the test of time and become a reference point as a community without child labour.” – ILO Country Director, Vanessa Phala
Following an inspection of the donated equipment including: sewing machines, welding machines, ovens and glass cylinders, Insecticide sprayers, clippers sterilizers, wheel barrows, generators, generators, industrial cooking gas, laptops, drums, hairdryers and wash basins, grinding machines, pop corn making machines, charging boxes, vulcanizing machines, and mechanic toolboxes,
The Governor of Ondo State, Arakurin Rotimi Akeredolu, represented by the Head of Service, Pastor Kayode Ogundele commended the Dutch Government, ILO and its tripartite partners for the gesture, describing it as a means to reduce poverty in the society.
According to the Governor, Government will continue to partner with civil society organizations like Restoration of the Dignity of Womanhood (ROTDOW) and Kids & Teens Resource Centre (K&TRC) to reduce poverty to the barest minimum in rural areas.
Also speaking at the event, the Controller, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Ondo State, Folayan O.M noted that since the start of the ACCEL Africa Project in Nigeria in May 2019, Nigeria has recorded a significant behavioural change towards child labour practices in focal communities and beyond.
The ACCEL Africa Project is focused on the elimination of all forms of child labour and forced labour from Nigeria including from its Artisanal Gold Mining and Cocoa supply chains, where the practice is most prevalent.
