Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, has said that his government would put all machinery in motion to encourage youths in the state to engage in agricultural business to help boost the state economy and the food security agenda of his administration.
The Governor, who stated this on Friday while on a working tour of some agricultural projects in Ado- Ekiti, said he was impressed with the resolve of some youths to embrace agriculture full time, stressing that one day, they too would become employers of labour.
The project sites visited by the Governor include: The Livestock Development Centre, which provides platform for the Ekiti Broiler Production Scheme; A-Bamsil Industrial Factory , a palm kernel processing plant; and JMK Rice Mill, said government alone cannot fund agriculture, hence, the need for improved public, private partnership to reposition the economy of the state.
He said his administration would build platforms and institutions aimed at collaborating with private sector players to open up space for Ekiti people to apply their expertise in the drive to ensure everyone lives wel. The Governor, who addressed some of the youth participating in the broilers Scheme, promised to remove all forms of constraints in doing business in the state.
The Governor who said that Agriculture plays very significant roles in the economy stated that agriculture has the capacity to employ thousands of youths, make them enjoy vibrant and profitable means of livelihood and enhance the economy of the state.
According to him, “Part of our plan is to encourage our young ones to go back to farm. The Broiler scheme for our youths is a pilot scheme and I’m so impressed that our young ones are now showing interest in agriculture and it speaks to one of our agenda on agriculture, job creation and youth development. And by God’s grace, once this one is stabilized, we intend to expand it, the beauty of this project is the fact that government will hand-hold them through the whole process of production.
“There is also a guaranteed market to off-take from this. Once they master what they are doing, they will be given a pen of their own that will belong to them, from which they too can employ labour and make money and it speaks to our shared prosperity agenda.
“We have to accept the fact that government alone cannot do everything and for wealth to go round and for jobs to be created, there must be platforms and institutions collaborating with private sector to open the space for many people to do a lot. What we are doing today is just one of the interventions in the agricultural sector, we are going to do this in other sectors to ensure that we get platforms and institutions and policies that will allow everybody to plying their trade in Ekiti State to do well and we will remove all the inhibitions towards doing business in Ekiti State.
“So, it is a policy that we have now agreed on. We have spent the last six months to understudy and understand the problem in that sector because, we want to intervene from an informed perspective, and we are not doing trial by error.”, the governor added.
Conducting the Governor round the JMK Rice Mill, the General Manager, Mr Lanre Solaja expressed his appreciation to the Governor for the visit. He said when fully operational, the mill has the capacity to produce 160 metric tons of rice per day.
The Managing Director of A-Bamsil industry, Mr Idowu Owoyomi, who said the factory is capable of refining 250 metric tons of palm kernel, highlighted some of the products the factory is capable of processing to include cooking oil, cosmetics, oil for perfumes, soap among others.