Leo Onwordi, the Chief Executive Officer of Charisma Broadcast Film Academy (CBFA), says the organisation will train 2,000 students in Abuja and Lagos on broadcasting.

Onwordi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday that the students would be taught the skills of acting, script writing, film production and directing.

He noted that the the training which would be done free of charge, is part of efforts of the organisation to empower the students as some of them could not afford to pay the tuition fees.

According to him, the students are expected to enrol for the September and October session.

Onwordi said that the students would undergo the programmes respectively in Abuja and Lagos.

“We will begin the session which has been targeted for September in Abuja, while October will be in Lagos.

“I intend to empower more people because most of them do not have money to pay for the programme,

“This edition will be big in terms of reaching out to sponsors to assist as many people to the training as possible.

“We will empower them with professional skills to enable them to be self-reliant or easily employable, doing it for free.’’

He noted that at the end of the programme, the best students would be actively engaged in his latest film productions which would be only for the Lagos participants.

According to Onwordi, Abuja participants will be taught Skits and how to be self-reliant as the industry is still young and poses challenges for upcoming actors.

“Abuja is more of a challenge than Lagos for those who participate in acting, directing, script writing and film production because the film industry is still in its teething stage.

“Fewer films are short in Abuja, unlike Lagos and getting them to travel down to Lagos without accommodation and transport fare will be overbearing on Lagos producers.

“Abuja participants will be trained to be self-reliant as actors, directors, script writers and producers through shooting affordable short films and Skits.

“Also, Abuja would benefit more from the broadcast industry because many people had internship training and got engaged.

“Others are now self-employed, so this is an area we will also consolidate,’’ he said.

NAN reports that skits are very short films which comprises a scene or two, for instance, the popular little Emmanuelle’s comedy are called Skits.