No fewer than 50 Commercial Motorcyclists popularly known as Okada Riders in Kwara State benefitted training on safety and entrepreneurship skills by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Nigerian Workforce Strategy and Enlightenment Centre (NIWOSEC) in Ilorin on Friday.
The seminar themed: ‘Work Na Work’, was targeted at the informal sector of labour, aimed at making participants realise their relevance to economic development of the state.
50 participants were selected from various zones of the state for the event, which was held at the state secretariat of NIWOSEC, Ganmo junction, Ilorin.
While declaring the occasion opened, the Chief Srategist of the organisation, Dr. David Kayode Ehindero, said the seminar was specifically organised to sensitise motorcyclists (Okada Riders) on various ways to expand their businesses.
Ehindero emphasised that the centre is interested in upgrading petty business owner and boost their morales towards ensuring human capacity building and better standard of living in the society.
He explained that the programme is also targeted at enlightening the riders against hazardous trend attached to their daily operation, thereby reducing accident rates to minimum level.
He said, “We held similar seminar last year for artisans at Micheal Imoudu lnstitute for Labour Studies. The reason behind this type of seminar is to let the people in informal sector know how important they are to the development of the community.
“‘Work Na Work’ you should always be proud of yourself in any sector of work you find yourself. We also call on people in our society to give respect to people in informal sector because in some cases they even contribute more than those in the formal sector.
“Most of them make above N30,000, the new minimum wage in a matter of days and pay taxes regularly despite having dependents, therefore they deserve proper recognition.
“Your sector is very important to the social and economic progress of our community, state and country, and as a result you should be very proud of your work at every point in time,” he added.
The NIWOSEC boss appealed to the participants to always obey traffic rules and regulations during their daily operation in order to reap the fruit of their labour.
According to him, the mission of the NGO is to let every worker in Nigeria have dignity in their work places and value themselves without any discrimination whatsoever.
The Kwara State Director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Olusegun Adeyemi in his remarks lauded the centre for initiating the idea aimed at impacting knowledge to smaller business owners
He said that participants can partake in the newly introduced micro pension plan by the Federal Government.
“Government gives special recognition to the transport sector because it appears to be booming presently and many Nigerians are currently making a living from the sector. You can reorganise your union and key into this opportunity”.
Speaking on behalf of other participants, the state Chairman of Okada Riders, Alhaji Fatai Oladimeji thanked the organiser for according commercial motorcyclists with recognition.
” We are also calling on the public to patronise only identified okada riders wearing uniforms with clear identification numbers to avoid falling victims of evildoer,” he warned.
