EDO, JANUARY 20, 2017 – Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday inaugurated a nine-man committee headed by Chief Osaro Idah, to kick-start his administration’s agricultural empowerment programme.
This came as he started strategising with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to boost the economy of the state, assuring of his administration’s continued economic revolution to guarantee youth empowerment.
The governor explained that the committee was constituted to commence some of the administration’s agricultural activities before the next cropping season and expressed optimism that the agricultural empowerment programme would generate between 50,000 and 80,000 jobs this year.
He listed four key areas the empowerment programme would focus on. They include 5,000 hectares of maize, 10, 000 hectares of green house for vegetables and tomatoes, 4,000 hectares of piggery as well as provide support to 3,000 cocoa farmers to improve their yields for this season
The governor said: “This is an advocacy committee which we expect to kick-start the agriculture mandate as contained in my electioneering campaign. We will soon constitute a full committee to look holistically at our agricultural initiative. We cannot wait, given that we are in a race against time. We want to ensure that we begin some of our agricultural activities before the next cropping season.
We want this committee to help government think through very quickly, identify specific projects we must begin to implement immediately. We have three months of dry season to make all the preparations required before the rains come in.”
Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki has been strategizing with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to boost the economy of the state, assuring of his administration’s continued economic revolution to guarantee youth empowerment.
The governor, who lauded the anchor-borrowers’ initiative of the Federal Government, expressed the state government’s support for the programme while receiving CBN’s management team, Benin branch, at the Government House.
On the initiation of the economic renaissance going on in the state, Obaseki said the immediate past administration led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, laid the foundation for an economic revolution which his administration would build on.
