FIRS empowers 60 Southwest youths in livestock farming

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has empowered 60 youths in the South-West zone with a training on livestock farming.

The training held in Oyo, Ondo, and Ekiti States, saw young people equipped with information on modern family techniques, disease control, and processing facilities.

The Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Dr Zacch Adedeji said the agency partnered with Just Snails Africa, with the belief that having more livestock farmers will greatly impact the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

Speaking during the Ibadan leg of the training, Adedeji, represented by Benedicta Akpana, a staff member of the FIRS, said it was keen on livestock farmers scaling up production because Nigeria had the potential to be the largest producer of poultry in Africa thereby resulting in an increase in the country’s GDP.

He added that the training aimed at making millionaires out of Nigerian livestock farmers thereby expanding the tax net.

“FIRS is sponsoring livestock farming training/empowerment for the youths of the southwest, in particular, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti. We want to also empower them with a token to support their dream of rearing livestock, and poultry precisely.

“In the next five years, the trainees will be potential livestock farmers, start their farms, empower more people,” Adedeji said.

Chief Executive Officer of Just Snails Africa, Femi Donald, spoke to farmers on expanding and safeguarding their birds using technology.

Donald urged more youth involvement in agriculture to guarantee food security, and food sufficiency in the country.

Some of the beneficiaries of the empowerment scheme, Funmi Ogundogbon and Fikayo Akinwunmi said while they are glad to be more equipped with modern agricultural techniques, they needed FIRS financial support to expand.