Business
Ministry Pledges Take Off Funds For Trainees
The Ministry of Niger
Delta Affairs has directed its field officers to identify graduates of its skills acquisition programme who had land in order to help them to start farming.
The Minister, Mr Godsday Orubebe, announced this at a meeting with 89 graduates of the programme in Abuja last Thursday.
The graduates had benefited from training in various fields of agriculture at institutions in Porto Novo and Israel.
“All we are saying is that anybody who has a farm land will be supported by the ministry.
“We are asking our field officers to identify those who have land in their villages.
“When they come back, we will analyse their findings for two weeks and by the following week, we will be able to support them to be on their own.
“It is going to be a continuous process. We will continue to support them until they are strong enough to be on their own’’, the minister said.
Orubebe recalled that the ministry, which trained the graduates in 2010, was unable to support them owing to its funding challenge.
“We see the challenges the graduates are having and we have been struggling hard to see that something is done.
“Not quite long ago, we had to plead with the National Assembly to provide some funds in this year budget. That is why we brought them here.
“All we told them to do is to go to their villages, speak with their parents and secure their own farm lands so that we can support them to go into farming.
“I have a farm in my village. I do fishery and have palm trees. I don’t buy plantain, fish and pepper when I go to my village.
“This farming has helped me and my immediate environment and these are the kind of things we want them to do’’, he said.
Earlier, Mr Otobo Victor, who spoke on behalf of the graduates, expressed dismay over the ministry’s delay in assisting them with funds since 2010.
Victor, who said most of them had no money to buy farm lands in their villages, urged Orubebe to assist them with funds to start farming.
The graduates were trained in fishery, poultry and crops production for three months.