By Emmanuel Ayade
To create posterity, reduce social tension and keep restive youths at bay, Cross River state government is partnering the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and the Dantata group to create 20,000 agro- based jobs for young people in the state.
Governor Ben Ayade disclosed this at the Conference Hall of the Governor's Office, Calabar, while playing host to officials from the Dantata group and the CBN.
"The meeting between CBN and Dantata group and indeed Cross River State is to cement a factor and create opportunity first for livestock, cattle and poultry. I have made an offer of job opportunities to 20000 young people with immediate effect but you are actually going to be your own employer.
"We will provide the money, we have signed an agreement with CBN that they will provide us money to support 20000 young farmers", the governor said.
The young farmers, he further explained, will be deployed to cotton production, livestock, maize and soya beans farming, rice farming, cocoa processing, groundunt cultivation among others.
According to Ayade, the state in partnership with Dantata group is also to set up an abbatoir in Obudu cattle ranch "aimed at growing cattle, production of beef and exporting it within the west African sub region"
The governor stated that his administration was taking the lead in Agro- Industrialisation because " this is the only way we can create jobs and reduce youth restiveness and allow young people to realize their full potential"
He argued that with massive arable land in Nigeria, it was an anomaly for the country to continue to import food, adding that "the advent of Covid 19 and the Endsars protest are like a clarion call that time has come for us to end food imports and, so I identify fully with President Buhari's philosophy and policy of ban on imported foods to force us to start creating jobs for young people"
Earlier in his remark, the leader of the Dantata team, Alhaji Tajuddeen Dantata who is also chairman and CEO Dantata Food and Allied Product Company Ltd said his company was delighted to partner with Cross River in Agro production.
He maintained that the time has come for Nigeria to take its destiny in it's own hand in terms of food production.
"We have to really work on ourselves because we have to produce what we eat and we have to eat what we produce. We can’t sit down and continue to be fed with whatever comes", he stated.
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