Nigeria’s richest woman Folorunsho Alakija has donated a Skills Acquisition Center to Yaba College of Technology, a higher educational institution located in Lagos.
According to a report by the Nation newspaper, the center is fully equipped with the necessary tools to be used in teaching skills in fashion designing, millinery (hat-making), bead-making, welding, pedicure and manicure, hair-dressing, barbing, soap-making, make-up artistry, shoe-making and fabrication.
At a ceremony on Wednesday where she handed over the new center to the school authorities, Alakija advised students to acquire a technical skill in addition to their academic degrees in order to increase their chances of financial success. She noted that technical colleges, vocational and skill acquisition centers could reduce unemployment significantly by creating a population of self-employed youths who will create cottage industries that can eventually snowball into big factories.
“We all can’t be in the office under air-conditioners executing white collar jobs. All those jobs are salary employment. You can be your own boss and build more confidence in yourself and put food on the tables of many more families as a result of the skills you have acquired,” she said.
Alakija, 67, is vice chair of Famfa Oil, a Nigerian oil exploration company with a stake in Agbami Oilfield, a prolific offshore asset. She is Nigeria’s richest woman with a fortune FORBES currently estimates at $1.8 billion.
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