The Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND) has selected another batch of beneficiaries, no fewer than 900 youth and women, to participate in the second phase of the project in the state.
The Project Coordinator, LIFE-ND in Edo, Mr. Jude Ekpu, made this known during a one-day orientation program organized for beneficiaries in Benin, while disclosing that the project, which started in 2020, had trained, graduated, and empowered over 1,150 youths and women since the project started in the state.
The LIFE-ND project in the state was funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in conjunction with the Federal and Edo State governments, to improve food security with a focus on four agricultural commodities, including poultry, fishery, cassava, and rice.
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Ekpu explained that the orientation program was taking place simultaneously in 52 communities across 10 local government areas of Uhunwode, Ovia North East, Orhionwon, Ikpoba-Okha, Esan West, Esan North East, Esan South East, Owan West, Etsako Central, and Akoko-Edo.
” We want to build young entrepreneurs across the value chains of the four commodities we are supporting in Edo.” So across the state, we have selected about 900 young people and women to participate in this second phase of the project”. Ekpu said.
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The National Project Coordinator, Engr. Sanni Abiodun, represented by Mr. Anthonia Esenwa, the project business coordinator in the Niger Delta, commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for the payment of the counterpart fund for the project,
He explained that the project does not give out cash but supplies inputs through an agribusiness incubation model using the model of the Igbo business apprenticeship strategy to train and empower the youth.
Also speaking was the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Stephen Idehenre, who encouraged beneficiaries to be ambassadors of the state in agribusiness by allowing their successes to tell the story.
