PIND tells success stories to stakeholders at NESG

Foundation for Partnership Initiative in Niger Delta (PIND) yesterday shared its success stories of various interventions in the region at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) 24 in Abuja.

Giving insight into PIND’s activities, the executive director, Dr. Dara Akala, told the stakeholders that the initiative had achieved its objective of improving the capacity of the people to fight poverty.He noted that various evaluations showed great improvement in the lives of the people, due to PIND’s innovative approach, which made communities more independent in the way they deal with issues of economic prosperity.

“Individuals and communities empowered through our projects are now able to perform their core functions efficiently and sustainably, and they develop over time such that they no longer depend on government,” Dr. Akala said.He added that such sustainable human capacity development goes beyond skills acquisition or development.

“It is evidence-driven, not a one-off process that requires time. It is systemic rather than individualistic and is a bouquet of mutually-supporting interventions,” the director explained.

According to him, the interventions have led to the emergence of entrepreneurs who sell advisory services to farmers and other businesses with over 50,000 farmers, and processors recording higher yields from improved agricultural practices introduced to them by PIND.

This year’s NESG meeting featured group discussions on topics ranging from wealth creation to social services, conflict mitigation and job-readiness for the youth. NESG is a leading private sector think-thank and policy advocacy group.