The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) through the Rural Employment Promotions (REP) department has provided facilities to 55 trained farmers in the three senatorial districts of Ogun state.
Speaking at the orientation and flag off ceremony in Abeokuta, the NDE Director General, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, disclosed that the federal government, in the effort to address unemployment in the country, established the agency for sensitising, counseling and reorientating the minds of unemployed youths to de-emphasise wage employment and embrace skill acquisition as a viable option.
“In driving this policy, the NDE identified a lot of demand-driven skills in vocational, entrepreneurial, agricultural and enterprise creation for young unemployed graduates and school leavers searching for employment,” Fikpo said
Represented by the State Coordinator, Oshinowo Kehinde, the DG noted that the facilities were meant to empower the youths who were trained in modern agriculture and life skills to be able to overcome the challenges of their immediate environment.
He added that the facilities would provide the unemployed with the required assistance for entrepreneurship.
“The implementation of this scheme would not have been possible without the kind approval of the NDE Supervising Minister, Hon Minister of State Labour and Employment, Rt. Hon. (Barr) Nkiruka Onyejeocha, who has been passionately committed towards promoting agriculture as a business and attracting unemployed Nigerians into modern agribusiness.
“The 55 beneficiaries of the facilities were participants drawn from the pool of REP trained beneficiaries in Ogun state and it is to enable them set up and manage small scale farm enterprises in their chosen areas of interest to become self reliant,” he added.
In her remarks, the Acting Director, Rural Employment Promotions, Abuja, Oruoyehu Beatrice who was represented by HOD REP in Ogun state, Omitogun Azeez, admonished the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the facilities in order to increase food security and enhance the quality of life of the youths.
