The Vice-Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Air Force, Honourable Abass Adigun, popularly called Agboworin, has commenced training for 150 youths and women on agro-mechanised business in his constituency with N7.5million, in order to reduce unemployment and poverty in the country.
Adigun, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker representing Ibadan North-East/South-East Federal Constituency of Oyo State, while addressing newsmen shortly after declaring the training open in Ibadan, on Tuesday, said each of the trainees would be given N50,000 as start-up capital.
The lawmaker urged the 150 participants in the first batch of the empowerment programme to ensure that they use the money judiciously for its purpose, adding that the empowerment was a fulfilment of one of the promises he made while seeking votes from the people.
The beneficiaries were being trained in poultry production, fishery and so on by officials from the federal Ministry and Agricultural and Rural Development, National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation and Aslak Global Resources.
Adigun told the beneficiaries that he spent about N900, 000 during the last festivities to buy 200 live chickens at the rate of N4, 500 per one, which he distributed to some people during the last festivities, adding that he would not hesitate to patronise any of the beneficiaries that would operate poultry farms after the training.
Adigun urged his constituents that were not picked for the first batch of the programme not despair as the exercise would be a continuous one, assuring them they would be selected for subsequent batches of the empowerment programme.
On education, Adigun stated: “I believe that we need for crucial things in our constituency. One, we need jobs for our youths. Also, we need security in our communities. We need capital projects that will help in the development of our communities. Education is also very good for our people.
“We have 14 persons that are representing Oyo State in the House of Representatives, and all of us organised summer (end of session) coaching for students in our constituencies. But I can tell you today that I am the only one that has continued with the coaching. The coaching is for students in SSII and SSIII.
“Very soon, scholarship forms will be available in my constituency offices at Eleta in Ibadan North-East and Ode-Aje in Ibadan South-East for students in tertiary institutions. I plan to give each student N100, 000 per year. For you to benefit, you must hail from my constituency. But the renewal of the scholarship for each year will be dependent on the ability of each student to maintain certain good grades.
“We have registered 200 candidates for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). I have made sure that we took 100 candidates from the Ibadan North-East and another 100 from Ibadan South-East. The 200 candidates that we registered for UTME have five credits in their O’Level results and this qualifies them for admission to tertiary institution,” he said.
Adigun also said market women in the constituency would be assisted with soft loans, saying: “For our women in the market, we have good plan for them too. Very soon, we will invite the management of all the markets we have in my constituency to a meeting. We will offer soft loan to our market women.”
