Societies and organisations in the Church have been asked to put in place empowerment programmes to support indigent, but enterprising and industrious members to grow their businesses, rather than eat, drink and make merry whenever they gather at their monthly meetings to deliberate on issues of common interests. Very Rev. Fr. Richard Fasuyi, the Parish Priest of St. Cyprian Catholic Church, Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos, gave the advice recently when he presented a cheque of one hundred thousand naira each to ten beneficiaries of the CYON, St. Cyprian empowerment scheme tagged, “Penguine Deck 1.0- New beginnings, Endless Possibilities.”
Fr. Fasuyi congratulated the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria for thinking out of the box to put smiles on the faces of the young entrepreneurs selected to benefit from the scheme. He admonished the beneficiaries to judiciously deploy the funds to improve their enterprises, urging other societies and statutory bodies in the Church to emulate the youths by setting aside funds to address the financial needs of struggling members among them, especially those running small scale businesses. In his speech, Tarcisius Eborh, President of CYON, St. Cyprian, Oko-Oba, said the initiative was transparently conducted.
According to him, from the number of entries received, the young business men and women were thoroughly screened and subjected to the pitch deck; the judges made the final pick of those to benefit from the grant, whose business interests cut across fashion designing, shoe-making, online retail business, among others. He said the idea is to expand on the scheme which started in 2019, counting on the assistance of public-spirited parishioners. The events also witnessed awards presentation to individuals in recognition of their support to CYON of the Parish.
