The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is training Nigerian migrants who have returned home from Libya to help them get a job. The course organized in Lagos is part of the assistance provided by the organization to help migrants who return home.
A total of 273 Nigerians who traveled back to their country from Libya attended a business training course in Lagos on August 27-31 as part of the assistance provided by UN agency International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help them settle back home.
IOM said in a statement that the course Business Skills and Cooperatives for Returned Migrants was the 21st event held in Nigeria for those who want to start an activity after returning to their community of origin.
Over 2,000 repatriated Nigerians in training courses
Onyekachi is one of those who attended the course. ''Before going to Libya, I dealt with sales and repair work for phones and the production of palm oil but then I left my business to migrate due to problems like the lack of electrical power'', he said. After the course, he said that he would love to start a farm. IOM said that, since April 2017, a total of 2,051 Nigerians (1,130 men and 921 women) who were repatriated attended business training courses in the Nigerian states of Lagos, Edo, Nassarawa, Kano and Kaduna, where they were educated on the different types of activities they mean to start, both individually and as a group.
Training provides hope for a future
The course includes sessions on business management, accounting, managing the supply chain and how to develop an idea. ''Training focuses on having more sustainable companies and not only on trade, buying and selling. We have mainly focused on companies connected to agriculture because they are more sustainable and they will add value to the communities of repatriated'' migrants, said chief instructor Osita Osemene after the first day of activities. Participants also attended sessions of ''mindset reset'' in which they shared their experience as migrants.
One of the participants, Blessing, said during one of these sessions that she left ''on May 26, 2017, and I paid a total sum of 500,000 Naira (about 1,400 dollars) from the proceeds of my fishing activity in Benin City. I wanted to reach Italy but I was apprehended at sea''. Blessing said she spent a month in jail and was then helped go back to Nigeria in June 2018. ''Now, thanks to training, I know I still have hope''.