By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
National Directorate of Employment (NDE) Borno State under under its Rural Employment Promotion (REP) has trained 50 youth, including women and beneficiaries of Post Sustainable Agricultural Development Scheme (Post SADTS), Agric Business and Small Stock Goats Production Scheme (ABSSGPS) using the Revolving Model Empowerment (RME).
The Director General NDE, Alhaji Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, said during the one week training workshop held in Maiduguri, that the objective is to identify value chain addition of the agricultural sector and prepare the beneficiaries to key into the scheme, which is aimed at empowering the beneficiaries to establish, grow and expand agric enterprises of their choice on a sustainable basis.
The DG who was represented by the State Coordinator, NDE, Borno State, Alhaji Zakari Kashim added that SADTS consists of various agricultural interventions that provide job opportunities to youth on one hand, and provides adequate food for the population.
Fikpo further explained that goats production is an economically viable business venture in Nigeria that is a value chain for commercial production and has great employment potentials, while stressing that it enjoys a very wide market share with all the productions in high demand in the open markets
The DG also said that the great inherent in goats production business include meat production, milk, hide, skin and manure and they can be used to earn income, increase livelihood of the farmers, create employments, reduce rural-urban migration and poverty.
The State Coordinator however, noted that the engagement of unemployed youth in goats production business along its value chain plays an important role in the socio-economic spheres of the society.