The Board for Technical and Vocational Education, BOTAVED has approved the establishment of Ahmed Raji Agric Academy, Okeho. According to an approval letter signed by the Executive Secretary of the Board Mrs E C Esan- Williams, the academy has been granted the provisional approval to run as a Technical College/ Vocational Institution.
“I wish to refer to your application for the approval to establish a Technical College / Vocational Institution and to inform you that provisional approval has been granted to the College to run as a Technical College/ Vocational Institution on which was inspected with the name , Ahmed Raji Agric Academy Okeho, Oyo State ” the letter reads.
Speaking with the newsmen at the permanent site of the academy, Sangosiji Adeola Obasanjo, the National President of OkeOgun Youth Association, the proprietor of the academy said that the academy is the training arm of OkeOgun Green Revolution aiming at encouraging young people to engage in profitable, sustainable and commercial agriculture to create wealth and contribute to the World sustainable development goal of food security.
The Academy which shall kick off before the end of this year is an institute of practical agriculture dedicated to breeding of successful young farmers with it’s permanent site inside the Commonwealth Estate, Okeho, a member of OkeOgun Green Estates.
According to Obasanjo, the experience from the association’s empowerment farm shown that many people going into farming, go with a lot of assumptions which later turned bad and make the farm either not profitable or make the experience less interesting which makes them quit in the first year or after they exhaust their capital.
“At Ahmed Raji Agric Academy, Okeho we will prepare students for a successful career in Agric Business with specialization in a specific area of Agric business. The Academy will also provide post-graduation mentorship to the graduans by assisting them in the establishment of their farm, getting them inputs and offtakers and creating platforms that will generate networks that will make farming easy, profitable and interesting to them” Obasanjo explained.
He stated further that the decision of the association to name the academy after the illustrious son of the soil, Alhaji Ahmed Raji SAN was born out of the immense support the Senior Advocate has been given to the OkeOgun Green Revolution movement.
He said that the paper presented by Ahmed Raji at the 2021 OkeOgun Youth Agric Summit inspired the establishment of the academy thus naming it in his honor.
It will be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the key note speaker at the 2021 OkeOgun Youths Agric. Summit where Alhaji Ahmed Raji , Otunba Bamidele Dada , Retired Brigadier General Toogun and Chairman Niji farms, Farmer Adeniji Lukas were Guest Speakers.
