Agriculture will transform rural economy – Gen. Boroh
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd) has called on youths in the Niger Delta region to take advantage of the federal government’s agricultural empowerment initiatives by engaging in farming activities and other Argo businesses.
Boroh pointed out that the agriculture empowerment scheme of the Presidential Amnesty Programme is aimed at creating job opportunities, ensure food availabilityand guarantee increase in the financial position of beneficiaries in the programme.
The Amnesty boss, in a statement on Friday by his Niger Delta Liaison Officer, Mr Piriye Kiyaramo, said that the programme would enable the youth to ,participate in productive and lucrative agro-business ventures, with a view to transforming the rural economy in the Niger Delta region
Represented by a senior reintegration officer and head of Amnesty Vocational Training Centre, Kaiama, in Kolokuma/Opokuma local government area of Bayelsa state, Mr. Jude Gbaboyor, during the graduation of 10 trained delegates in aquaculture and poultry farming in Okochiri, in Okrika local government area of Rivers state on Wednesday (September 20,2917), Gen. Boroh said that his office was working towards creating agro-business hubs in rural communities in a bid to raise awareness in different aspects of agriculture to provide agro-based services as sources of income generation for delegates in line with the ongoing reintegration phase of the Programme.
Boroh reiterated that investing in agriculture would also enhance social protection for youths in rural communities in the Niger Delta region, hinting that the Amnesty Programme has empowered several youths in the region through human capacity building initiatives in education, agriculture, aviation, automobile, tourism, ICT, professional welding and fabrication , as well as oil’ and gas related fields to enable them participate Favorably in the local economy, with emphasis on agriculture, ICT and vocational skills, adding that the empowerment programmes in agriculture were intended to create employment opportunities for the youths as part of efforts to boost local food production and reduce the extreme poverty index in the Niger Delta Region.
The Amnesty boss also revealed that the programme is also meant to create the enabling environment for beneficiaries to become self employed through establishment of various agro-based enterprises such as micro agric processing, aquaculture, poultry among others, informing that the short but intensive agricultural empowerment engagements were deliberate efforts by the Presidential Amnesty Office to facilitate apprenticeship experience for young people to have practical agro business experience, including agricultural tool-making and farming to assist the trainees manage their own small-scale enterprises without supervision.
In his remark, HRM, Michael Ateke-Tom (Sekuro 1 of the Niger Delta), the Amayanabo of Okochiri community, in Okrika LGA of River State, represented by his Personal Assistant, Comrade Opia Joshua, who commended General Boroh for the ongoing agricultural empowerment scheme, described the agricultural initiative as the best thing that has happened to the youths in the Niger Delta region in terms of youth empowerment and job creation, just as he appealed to the Amnesty Office to endeavour to extend the empowerment programme to more delegates that are yet to benefit from his domain.
In a related development, Chief Amnagi Sunday, also commended the federal government for sustaining the Presidential Amnesty Programme, saying that the programme has brought peace and stability in the Niger Delta region, stressing the need for more empowerment of the delegates as soon as possible to enable them start their own agro businesses.
Earlier, the representative of the vendor (Global Rush Nigeria Limited) Mr. Stephen Abolo said ten delegates of the Presidential Amnesty Proramme whose capacity has been developed in the Agriculture sector six months ago at Ma-Atari Farms in Okochiri are doing very well and expressed the confidence that they would soon be empowered to establish their businesses.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, one of the ex-agitators Mr. Ezinwa Arinze, thanked Gen. Boroh for the agricultural empowerment programme, saying that they were looking forward to when the Amnesty Office would empower them to establish their own farms in the near future. The Highpoint of the ceremony was the presentation of certificates to the trained delegates.
Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
