The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has empowered no fewer than 45 entrepreneurs in agriculture in Cross River state with facilities to boost their businesses.
The 45 beneficiaries were trained in modern techniques in agricultural businesses last year.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Cross River state Coordinator of NDE and made available to Blueprint in Uyo on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the Director General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Fikpo made flagged off the Community-Based Agricultural Empowerment Scheme (CBAES) in Calabar.
It said, Fikpo represented by the State Coordinator of NDE, Udam urged youths to always embrace self-employment as white-collar jobs were becoming scarce to find.
He expressed optimism that the facility disbursed to the beneficiary will enable them to establish their businesses based on their field of interest.
“These prospective participants are drawn from the Rural Employment Promotion (REP) trained beneficiaries in the 12 states.
“Under this scheme, 660 beneficiaries will be provided with facilities that will enable them to set up and manage small-scale off-farm enterprises in their chosen areas of interest to become self-reliant, create wealth, and generate employment opportunities.”
The DG enjoined the beneficiaries to put the facility to good use in order to become self employed as well as generate secondary employment through the recruitment of other unemployed youths in their business.
