260 Women, Youths graduates from FG Agric Intervention in C’River b
By Our Admin
The first and second batch of 260 beneficiaries have graduated from the Federal Government Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises- Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) in Cross River State.
The 260 beneficiaries also known as incubattees consist of 132 males and 128 females. They were trained in four commodities areas of Cassava, Fishery, Poultry and Rice seedlings where the state has comparative advantage.
The LIFE-ND project in Cross River State is being funded by Federal Government and assisted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Cross River State government, and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held at Axari Hotel, Calabar yesterday, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Mfon Bassey who was represented by Mr Christopher Achong of the state ministry of Agriculture, congratulated the incubatees on their successful completion of their training noting that the graduands are now employers of labour, even as he revealed that he is less than 2 months old as a Commissioner for Agriculture.
In his welcome address, the State Project Coordinator, LIFE-ND, Innocent Obi, said the project was being implemented in 10 local governments and 50 incubation centres in the state were engaged.
Innocent explained that the project adopts incubation model which focuses on mentorship strategy whereby the prospective youths and women who are the incubatees are attached to successful agric-business enterprises operating within the selected local government areas.
He assured that the project is on course to ensure that graduands are not cut off from monitoring mechanism even after they might have received financial assistance from the government.
“This is graduation of 260 incubatees drawn from 10 LGAs and 50 incubation centres of the state. The project is on course, graduating them doesn’t mean we completely cut off our monitoring mechanism. We want to continually give them linkages and mainstream them into other areas of the environment. The Enterprise is still within our purview to see how they fare and we have linked them to financial services where they can get help.”
He advised the graduands to utilized the skills they have acquired and think out of the box by using their intellect to come up with ideas that will help them live well.
In a Goodwill message, the Chairman, Farmers Council, Owen Oyama commended the graduands and identified agriculture as one of the mainstay of the economy and one of the ways which the youths can be empower.
Speaking on behalf of the 260 graduating incubatee, the best graduating incubatee in rice seedlings, Nathaniel Ntui from Ogoja, who was presented with an award and a cash prize of N100,000 said the programme has added value and has transform the lives of the beneficiaries from being unemployed to enterprenuers and employers of labour and appealed to the partners to sustain the programme.