EQUIP 60000
EQUIP 60,000 Youth & Women Empowerment Initiative
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ achieved the following with each beneficiary:
E – Educate; teach skill and empowering knowledge,
Q – Quench; quench the poverty status and mentality,
U – Upgrade; upgrade the skill and mindset of participants,
I – Illuminate; show and lead participants into new ways of economic growth and
P – Pivot; set the lives of participants on a sustainable growth trajectory.
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ was a hybrid program that combined digital and physical training and used an integrative four-level approach towards youth and women empowerment.
EQUIP officially took off in November 2021 with well-attended and highly publicized press conferences in the city of Lagos and Kano. The training continued till March 2022 and ended in April 2022 with two closing ceremonies, a physical one in Kano and a virtual one broadcasted over the internet and streamed live to all participants on YouTube and Facebook. Mentoring, monitoring and evaluation are still ongoing.
The digital training enrolled 71,992 participants from all 36 states of the federation plus the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. While the physical training was held in Kano communities in the high-poverty Northwest region of Nigeria with 2,212 beneficiaries.
‘E.Q.U.I.P’ was laser-focused on the youth and women (between the ages of 18yrs and 45yrs) who are unemployed and disadvantaged living in major cities otherwise known as the ‘urban poor’
The EQUIP 60000 project reached a total of 74,204 youth and women from every state in Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory through a combination of digital training via a web portal and Android Mobile App, and physical training in Kano communities.
Furthermore, a total of 1,100 top-performance participants were awarded seed capital grants to enable them to grow their skills and pivot their businesses.
The youth and women were empowered with employability, entrepreneurship, and low-tech vocational skills to enable them to rise out of poverty, stay away from vices like prostitution and crime, and become self-reliant to cater to themselves and their immediate dependents.
EQUIP 60,000 was mainly funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, Atlanta, USA. Other partners include Sterling One Foundation, MSMEAfrica, Kano State Ministry of Youth & Sports Development, Kano State Agency For Mass Education, Capstone Resource Centre, and Megalios IT Foundation.