NDE trains 50 Anambra unemployed youths on Agriculture

Tribune Online
NDE trains 50 Anambra unemployed youths on Agriculture

The National Directorate of Employment, NDE, has commenced the training of 50 unemployed youths from school leavers to graduates of tertiary institutions in Anambra State with interest in agriculture.

The Anambra State Coordinator of NDE, Mrs Ufele Chika disclosed this on Monday, during the flag-off ceremony of ‘Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme, SADTDS 2019’, organized by Rural Employment Promotion, REP, Department at Awka South local government headquarters, Amawbia.

Mrs Chika said that SADTDS was being replicated in all the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory, stressing that the concept was to provide more profitable farm income, promote environmental stewardship and equally enhance the quality of life for farmers in tandem with the federal government policy on agriculture for employment and wealth creation.

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She noted that the 50 unemployed beneficiaries for the training were drawn from the three senatorial zones in the state and would be trained for three months in modern agricultural practices.

According to her, “Two weeks out of the three months is for the tutorial, while the rest period is for the adaptive experiential farm with livestock/crop production training unit. The training also includes marketing and entrepreneurial training and life skills lectures.

“A stipend of #6000 is to be paid per participants for the duration of the training (ie #2000 per month) for the three months. Though we are in collaboration with Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on the easy linkage of our participants to secure soft loans to start-up, however, the federal government may have something to do later.”

In his remarks, the Director-General of NDE, Nasiru Mohammed represented by Mr Pascal Ede emphasized the essence of creating the department of Rural Employment Promotion in NDE, saying it was designed for the rural populace to gain employment and enhance their rural income via agricultural production.

“These laudable aims are achieved through skills impartation in modern farming and micro-credit support in post-harvest handling, production process and storage among others.

“The programmes also promote training on non-farm rural employment activities, stimulate the rural economy and reduces rural-urban drift,” Mohammed said.

The DG also urged the unemployed youths to be serious with the training, noting that the skills acquired by the successful participants would enable them not to fall back into the unemployment market.

One of the participants, Mrs Ego Nweze commended the management of NDE for their effort to see that high rate of unemployment in Anambra state, in particular, is being reduced.

She pleaded with the federal government to assist them with starting capital after the training which she said would serve as an ancillary to cope in their different fields of agricultural development.

NDE trains 50 Anambra unemployed youths on Agriculture
Tribune Online