Business
ARAC Boss Counsels YEAP Beneficiaries On Challenges
The Director-Incharge of
the Africa Regional Aqua Culture Centre, Aluu (ARAC), Rivers State, Dr. Stephine Joe Ansa, has disclosed that the centre was involved in organizing programmes aimed at enabling the youth become agric entrepreneurs.
Ansa who spoke during the inauguration of the Youth Employment In Agriculture Programme (YEAP) that was organized by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with its Rivers State Counterpart acknowledged the challenges the youth were facing in their quest to become agro-business people .
She explained that such challenges were not peculiar to the youth alone as they can be surmounted as they progress.
“We are organizing programmes that will enable you stand on both feet and also employ others”, she said.
The ARAC boss urged them to strive to be employers of labour in their chosen agric fields of endeavours.
She appealed to the participants not to regard the programme as political even as she claimed the programme was devoid of political undertones.
“I will like to appeal that this programme be taken not as a political programme because the undertone I am getting is as if this is another government show.
“It is not, I can tell you that it is not, if it were, we will have known from the beginning,” she said.
According to her, the programme did not start overnight as it was a well-thought-out project.
She reminded the beneficiaries that they are not being employed by the government, rather the government was only encouraging them to be self reliant and engage others in the future.
While also acknowledging the possibility of being victims of fraudsters along the line of their business, she however urged them to be focused and cautious.
She further called on them to discard the idea of waiting for government to enable them actualize their dreams.
In addition, she said the field was wide for agrio business to include and not limited to cat fish. Others include fresh water sprawn, marine shrimp and oyster, amongst others.
Business
NAFDAC Decries Circulation Of Prohibited Food Items In markets …….Orders Vendors’ Immediate Cessation Of Dealings With Products
Importers, market traders, and supermarket operators have therefore, been directed to immediately cease all dealings in these items and to notify their supply chain partners to halt transactions involving prohibited products.
The agency emphasized that failure to comply will attract strict enforcement measures, including seizure and destruction of goods, suspension or revocation of operational licences, and prosecution under relevant laws.
The statement said “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised an alarm over the growing incidence of smuggling, sale, and distribution of regulated food products such as pasta, noodles, sugar, and tomato paste currently found in markets across the country.
“These products are expressly listed on the Federal Government’s Customs Prohibition List and are not permitted for importation”.
NAFDAC also called on other government bodies, including the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS) Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Shippers Council, and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), to collaborate in enforcing the ban on these unsafe products.
