National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
By:Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
The President of the Royal Queens of the Niger Delta Initiative and Chairperson of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Wives Association, HRM Dr. Barr. Josephine Diete-Spiff said that the essence of launching the Entrepreneurship Platform Initiative (EPI) in the state was to help women to be enterprising, support their family and be self sustaining.
She stated this during a business and managerial training organized for women by the Entrepreneurship Platform Initiative at the Traditional Rulers Council in Yenagoa on September 21, 2018 with the theme: “Making Entrepreneurship Work in Business Against All Odds”.
Accoding to the Queen of Twon-Brass Kingdom, EPI is passionate about women surviving and because of that have gone all out to do everything to get the women interested to be able to earn.
She said, “The underlining word is to earn and be sustainable. So for EPI, I think the greatest difference is that they allow the woman to bring out the leader within them and be passionate about surviving and sustainability.
“What we are trying to do is to take away poverty from the the homes. That is one of the important thing about entreneurship in EPI because it is about emancipating women from the curse of poverty.
“Today, we learnt how to do business on social media which is very important and we also learnt how to be an entrepreneurs and do business against all odds. That you can reinvent yourself which is very important for women.
“A lot of women are doing nothing and EPI have come to Bayelsa to say lets help the women to be enterprising and to add to the home, to support the family and to help train their children and be self sustaining.
“So as members, you will be able to acquire some skills and continuous training that can keep you in business no matter the odds in business.
“This is just the inaugural stage, we are just starting and I believe that Bayelsa women if they catch up to it and take action, their lives will actually change and there will be more at home.
The global convener and President, Entrepreneur Platform Initiative (EPI), Mrs. Mercy Bello Abu said the idea behind EPI is about giving a platform for women to develop and to bring out that greatness on their inside.
“We discovered that most times as women, as girls growing up, you do not have that opportunity to help to develop yourself. So a developed woman, an empowered woman is a woman that has been given a platform.
“For the teenage girls, we are going to create an enabling environmental for them. We are going to bring them in because most of them will have the opportunity to meet with the already established women out there.
“There is no perfect life anywhere. What they are going through is just a phase that they will go out of. But seeing somebody that has been through there, you will know that it is not the end of life.
“You have a child at a young age is not the end of life. You are not able to make end meet now is not the end. But there is hope if you are able to surmount it and come out of it.
“It is when we limit ourselves that you be thinking that is the end of it all. But it is on the inside. This is what EPI brings; the ability to push yourself against all odds.
“We are providing a platform and this platform will enable you to be part of our network and as you know, your network determine your net worth”, she stressed.
Also, the EPI state coordinator, Mrs. Vivian Seth Samuel said that the way forward is for Bayelsa women to come and register, adding that the benefits are numerous.
“It is only when they are registered that they will have access to all the benefits of loans. But the highest impact is the knowledge. If you don’t have the knowledge and I give you the money, where will you start from? You will squander the money and even when we are going to give money, we don’t give money cash.
“Like people that are into different ventures, we will know what you are doing. Either we help you buy those materials, whatever you want, we will buy it. So If I see women that are ready and passionate with their vision, am ready to work with them”, she assured.
Photo Caption: Inset, HRM, Queen Josephine Diete-spiff poses with one of the beneficiaries of the entrepreneurship training.
