Delta trains 6,075 youths on skills

No fewer than 6,075 youths have been trained and empowered since 2015 in Delta State in various agricultural schemes and businesses of their choice via Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP), Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) and the Graduate Employment Enhancement Programme (GEEP.)

The state’s Chief Job and Wealth Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh, made this known during the Orientation and Farm Enterprise Training (OFET) for cassava farmers enrolled in the 2022 YAGEP cycle in Asaba, yesterday.

Eboh said that of the total number of farmers trained, 1,520 were supported through YAGEP in the past seven years, noting that the 2022 cycle was targeted at over 800 beneficiaries, of which 300 Brown YAGEP beneficiaries would be enrolled in the programme.

While the first batch of 145 YAGEPreneurs in cassava production are expected to receive orientation to acquire knowledge that would boost their farms.

He said the 2022 cycle was the seventh cycle after six successive cycles since the inception of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration.

The farm enterprise training workshop, he said, would be followed with provision of support packages to beneficiaries, packages such as fertiliser, animal feeds, crop agrochemicals, livestock vaccination and money to pay for critical farm labour in land preparation, weeding, animal husbandry and harvesting.

The Executive Assistant to the Governor on Youth Monitoring and Mentoring, Mr. Edward Mekwunye, assured the beneficiaries of his agency’s mentorship to ensure success of their enterprises, while the Senior Special Assistants to the Governor on Job and Wealth Creation, Gerry Osai, Tony Omonemu,  Chukwuka Osumili and Prince Charles Abutoh, urged the farmers to apply professionalism on their farms to add value to their products.