Calabar TIC trains 38,000 women and youths on skills acquisition

From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar

Agatha Effa, the manager of the Calabar Technology Incubation Centre, has revealed that the centre has trained over 38,000 women and youths across Cross River State on various skills.

She disclosed this in her office in Calabar while speaking on the achievements of the centre in recent years.

According to her, “The centre has trained 36,000 youths and women in different types of skills acquisition across the 18 local government areas of the state.

“Some of the skills include soap production, paints production, fabrication of agro and allied machines, food and confectioneries, solar panel production, and others.

“Besides this, we have empowered 2,754 persons across the state through Skills Acquisition Trainings.

“We have also admitted 100 entrepreneurs, graduated 60 businesses, upgraded the centre’s facilities, and constructed five new incubation units,” she said.

She mentioned that although the production is enormous, the centre is too small to train youths across the entire state.

Effa also advocated for the establishment of a technology park in the state to house these trainees in one location and make them more accessible.

Regarding the centre’s challenges, she called for increased support from the state government in terms of security for the centre and mitigating the impact of windstorms on the facility.

She also stated that the centre is in dire need of a 1000KVA transformer and a 33KVA line to the facility to enable it to power its machines, as it currently spends a lot on diesel, which is not ideal for production.