A member of the National Assembly representing Ohaozara, Onicha, Ivo Federal Constituency and the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Hon. Linus Okorie, in his quest to empower his people, has trained over fifteen thousand people from his constituency on the cassava value chain, poultry and piggery production.
Okorie made this known during the final training programme organised for some of the participants at Osborne LA Palm Hotel Uburu, on Monday.
According to Okorie, an undisclosed amount of money was also given to the participants to commence their businesses after the training programme as a way of reducing unemployment among youths and women.
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Okorie represented by Ernest Nwafor, one of his legislative aides said, the programme has been on for five years and would continue despite he is not going back to the National Assembly.
“The essence of this training is to empower our constituents, especially on various agricultural value chain development training. We are empowering them on poultry and piggery.
“This programme has lasted for years. Though we are not going back to the National Assembly, we will still continue with the programme because it touches the lives of the people. So, it is a long term programme,” he said.
He called on the beneficiaries to also empower other constituents to reduce unemployment in the constituency.
Dr Olabisi Akinnfolarin, Deputy Director of Education and Liaison, Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, Abuja, who was one of those that trained the beneficiaries explained that the training will expose the youths on new techniques in piggery and poultry productions.
“The white collar jobs are not there, a lot of graduates are all out there. So, this training will offer lots of employment to them,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries, Festus Anoke, said the training will enable them to be self-reliance and become employers of labour.
“In Nigeria today, there is a need for diversification of our economy and the Federal Government has paid much attention to Agriculture. Poultry production is one of it, by this, it will reduce unemployment in the country,” he said.