Constituents drawn from Ede north, Ede south, Egbedore and Ejigbo federal constituency of Osun state have been mobilised for yet another round of empowerment by the lawmaker representing them in the National Assembly.
The parliamentarian, Bamidele Salam who drew the 125 participants across the 4 local government areas in the constituency said in his welcome address that, the annual empowerment scheme was his contribution towards empowering significant number of his constituents out of poverty, thereby enhancing economic development of the area.
He emphasised that, gone are the days where the youthful population go cap in hand in search of white collar jobs that are not readily available, noting that agriculture provides a veritable opportunity for many people exploring it’s value chain activities.
The training which took place at Adetunji Adeleke hall in Ede, Osun state is tagged BS-E4 Business and Leadership Bootcamp and has the theme: Stimulating Youths Participation in Agricultural Value Chain Activities.
Rep. Salam who addressed the gathering via the Zoom platform urged the participants to take the training and empowerment opportunity seriously as it has the propensity to propel them to greater heights they pursue different sectors in various opportunities provided by agriculture in Nigeria.
Rep. Salam further maintained that, agriculture as a traditional occupation in this part of the world is a low-hanging fruit with several doors of opportunities that the training will unlock for the participants.
In a later presentation on his behalf by Dr. Adebimpe Obelawo, Rep. Salam make talk on the topic: ‘Agriculture: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ took participants down the memory lane, x-raying the contributions of agriculture to the overall growth of Nigeria as well as the future it holds for youths.
In series of presentations, the 3-lead facilitators sourced from Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) trained the participants on appropriate methods of food storage, opportunity for youth in agricultural value chain, production of ground rice, beans and plantain flour, as well as hygienic fish processing.
Similarly, The head of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) in Osun state, Mr. Oladele Aloko exposed them to various financial facilities that they can access and deploy into development of their businesses.
In the same vein, they were exposed to the processes of formation and registration of business.
Meanwhile, a cross section of participants who spoke during the recap of the activities for Thursday, 4th March expressed gratitude to the lawmaker for finding them worthy to take part in the training which they described as being essential to them.
The training continues on Friday as participants are expected to be given financial grants aimed at enhancing their various businesses endeavors.
The event would see young men and women in the largely agrarian communities, empowered with cognitive knowledge, skills, information, networking and financial support to start or grow their businesses in the Agricultural sector.
