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VON DG urges youths to embrace Buhari’s agrarian revolution

By Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
10 February 2020   |   3:35 am
The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has implored Nigerian youths to join President Muhammadu Buhari’s agrarian revolution going on nationwide. Okechukwu, who gave the charge while addressing youths in Enugu ....

The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has implored Nigerian youths to join President Muhammadu Buhari’s agrarian revolution going on nationwide. Okechukwu, who gave the charge while addressing youths in Enugu at the weekend, said that the Federal Government could not employ 10 per cent of millions of unemployed graduates looking for jobs.

He, therefore, appealed to them to join the agrarian revolution as we are entering the raining season.The VON helmsman explained that agriculture remains the mainstay of the country’s economy, highest employer of labour and highest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), saying: “May I candidly appeal to our youths nationwide to join President Muhammadu Buhari’s agrarian revolution, especially now that we are entering the farming season. The truth of our situation is that we must go back to land, as agriculture still remains the mainstay of our economy, the highest employer of labour and highest contributor to our Gross Domestic Product. Methinks that both the federal and state governments cannot employ up to 10 per cent of millions of our unemployed graduates.”

Okechukwu, who stated that the agrarian revolution had different segments, such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), which has no direct interest rate attached to the Small Holder Farmers (SHF), further said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) was launched on November 17, 2015 by the President to create a new generation of farmers and link them with agro-processing companies called anchors in this instance. The Central Bank of Nigeria in the Anchor Borrowers Programme shielded the Small Holder Farmers (SHF) from prohibitive interest rate thus deepened financial inclusion.”

“In fact, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with some state governments clear the farmland, provide high yield seedlings, provide fertiliser and the farmers harvest the produce commodities and hand over to anchor companies, which off-take the farm products.”

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