By Joy Odor
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) is set to expand the frontier of vocational skills acquisition for inmates in shoes, garments and leather works.
This was made know by the Controller General of Corrections (CGC) Alhaji Ja’afaru Ahmed on Wednesday during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by NCoS with a private entrepreneur on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement and made available in a press statement by CSC James O. Okoh, the Public Relations Unit.
The first phase of the engagement is the Shoe and Garment factory in Aba Custodial Centre and the Leather Factory in Janguza Custodial Centre, Kano State.
The CGC noted that the benefit of the arrangement skills acquisition for the inmates will enhance their employability when they are discharged.
According to him, it will also increase the internally generated revenue of the Service and enhance self-sustainability in the provision of staff uniforms and foot wears as well as inmates’ uniforms and beddings.
He solicited for the support and patronage of members of the public for goods produced by inmates in other to create a sense of self-worth in the offenders.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 gave a directive that all military and para-military agencies should resort to purely local sourcing of their uniforms and foot wears.
The laudable initiative was borne out of the need to generate employment for Nigerians, conserve foreign exchange, utilize local raw materials and generate other value added services in the chain of production.
