Why we empower Ibadan youths –CCII

THE dream to position youths in Ibadan for greater task in their various choosing careers as the world now tends towards agricultural development is the reason the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) decided to embark on aggressive youth empowernment programme.

These were the words of the chairperson, Youth Empowerment Committee of CCII, Dr (Mrs) Ayoyinka Babatunde, while speaking with Nigerian Tribune during the general assembly of the association, held at the Bode Amoo Hall, Ibadan House, at the weekend.

Dr Babatunde, while releasing cheques to various beneficiaries of the scheme, said “CCII wants to make sure that in the race of progress, Ibadan is not left out. We want  to make sure that our youths are not idle.

“Now that the world is tending towards agricultural business, we want to ensure that some of them who are interested in agribusiness can be ready for greater thing that they can get from the government. If they can be able to manage this one very well, it will be easier for CCII to now guarantee them, either in Bank of Industry (BOI) or in any other platforms they are willing to go.”

Dr Babatunde informed that 50 youths were picked at the commencement of the seminar, 10 of which showed interest and were duly considered for the empowerment scheme.

Three of them, Idowu Olubukunmi, Mustapha AbdulAzeez and Ishola Abdul Ganiyu Olayinka, who deal in agribusiness and represented the 10 beneficiaries at the programme, received a cheque of N100,000 each.

The trio, in separate interviews, expressed their appreciation to the CCII for providing the platform to give their businesses a new lease of life.

Olubukunmi, while commending the CCII for the initiative, said the association had demonstrated that “it is really interested in developing Ibadan, socially, economically and even in terms of security.”

He added that “in no small measure, what CCII has done today clearly demonstrated that they meant well for all the people of Ibadan. To me, this gesture will go a long way to help our business to grow and encourage us youths from Ibadan.

“On our part, we promise that we will endeavour to justify their investment on all of us and give hope to others who might be looking forward to enjoyin g the same benefit.”

Corroborating Dr Babatunde’s claim, the CCII President-General, Chief Wole Akinwande, said “CCII has always been interested in finding jobs for our people. Our experience shows that the economy is so bad and there are no jobs. Every day, fresh graduates are coming up, so we thought of teaching them how to create jobs.

“In some other countries, even if you are a graduate of Physics or Chemistry, they train you for other jobs. So, we felt we could train these people and encourage them to be businessmen and entrepreneurs. This is how the idea began.”