The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has disbursed N4.2m to 42 unemployed persons in Kogi to go into agribusiness.
Each of the 42 beneficiaries got N100,00 from the loan to cover four schemes under the directorate’s rural employment promotion programme. The four schemes are agricultural enhancement, sustainable agricultural development, community-based agricultural empowerment and graduate agricultural empowerment.
The director-general of NDE, Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, represented by the Kogi State coordinator of the directorate, Abubakar Zakari, while speaking at the disbursement ceremony, said that the gesture was aimed at making the beneficiaries self-reliant.
Read also: Manufacturers warn of higher unemployment, poverty as economy slows
The DG said “agriculture is the mainstay of the nation’s economy as well as the only sector that will help tackle the alarming unemployment situation in Nigeria”, he said.
The facilitator of the programme, Beatrice Oruoyehu, a deputy director from NDE headquarters, Abuja, while presenting letters of offer of the loans to the beneficiaries, charged them to see the grant as a seed that would enable them grow their businesses if invested well and managed wisely.
Shaibu Omeiza, head, department of rural employment promotion, reminded the beneficiaries of their responsibility to repay the loan with just nine percent interest, six months moratorium period and three years duration.
