Not less than ten thousand persons from Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo federal constituency in Ebonyi state have benefited from the empowerment programs of Hon Linus Okorie.
The beneficiaries who were trained on cassava value chain, poultry and piggery were given money to start up their own businesses.
Okorie represented by one of his legislative aides Ernest Nwafor, said the programme which started five years ago would continue despite the fact that the lawmaker would not go back to the National Assembly.
He said: “The essence of this training is to empower our constituents especially on various agricultural value chain development training.
We are empowering them on poultry and piggery.
“This programme has lasted for years. Though we are not going back to the National Assembly, we will still continue with the programme because it touches the lives of the people. So, it is a long time
programme”, he said.
He also called on the beneficiaries to also empower other constituents to reduce unemployment in the constituency.
Similarly, Dr. Olabisi Akinnfolarin, Deputy Director Education and Liaison, Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, one of the trainers noted that the training has exposed youths on new techniques in piggery and poultry productions.
“The white collar jobs are not there, a lot of graduates are all out there. So, this training will offer lots employments to them”, she said.
One of the beneficiaries, Festus Anoke said the training will enable them to be self-reliance and become employers of labour.
“In Nigeria today, there is need for diversification of our economy and federal government has paid much attention on Agriculture. Poultry production is one of it, by this it will reduce unemployment in the country”, he said.
