Tony Okafor,Awka
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE)has commenced the training of scores of persons in goat breeding in Anambra state.
The participants were selected across the 21 local local government areas of the state under the auspices of rural employment promotion (REP) Department of the NDE.
The training, it was gathered , would last for 5 five days.
Addressing the participants Thursday during the orientation ceremony at Amawbia in Awka South local government area, the State Coordinator of NDE, Mrs. Chika Ufelle said the programme was designed for both graduates of higher institutions, school leavers and retirees.
Ufelle said the training would include breeds of goats and breeding techniques/methods, artificial insemination and natural mating, general goat management; milk, skin and waste, as well as principles of revolving model of empowerment in goat production.
She said the participants would also be trained in record keeping in goat fattening, co-operative society formation, basic business training and writing of business Plan.
She said, ” The Small Stock (Goat) Production Training Scheme is a specialized training on goat production technology along it’s value chain, using the revolving model of empowerment and is carefully designed to align you with the current demands of the general economic activities of the society. This will obviously enhance you for self-employment.
” The choice and emphasis on agriculture rest on the fact that, Agriculture is the engine of life for the human community.
” It is our strong belief that after this training, all the participants would have acquired both theoretical and practical knowledge that would enable them succeed in this segment of the Agricultural Sector and become employers of labour, thereby help in growing the economy.”
Also speaking, the Director General of NDE, Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, represented by Pascal Edene, enjoined the participants to take advantage of the training to acquire good marketable skills that would sustain them, their generation and the Nigeria society at large.
” Fikpo said,”Adequate logistics and enough preparation have been made for the smooth take off of the training in the state. Therefore, attendance is compulsory as failure might lead to removal from training and the training stipend forfeited.” The DG warned.
One of the participants, Mr. Ikechukwu Nnake reassured their full commitment throughout the period of the training, noting that the knowledge acquired would also be useful to their socio-economic self- dependent.