The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has begun the training of 25 youths in Kaduna on advanced agriculture under its Post Sustainable Agricultural Development Training Scheme (POST-SADT) programme.

The National Daily reports that the 25 participants had earlier received basic training on different aspects of agriculture such as poultry, fishery, cow fattening among others.

The Acting NDE Kaduna State Coordinator, Mrs Victoria Dada-Williams, said that the training would last for one week.

According to her, participants will be trained on practical application of government agricultural policies like provision of incentives, links to sources of funds and high productivity.

“It is also to encourage the youth to accept agriculture as a means of livelihood rather than looking for white collar jobs.
“ I want to encourage you all to be more serious, more dedicated and make use of this golden opportunity,’’ she said.

Dada-williams added that the training was a significant step in Nigeria’s quest to win the war against mass unemployment as well as to ameliorate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

She explained that the NDE in the last three decades had remained in the forefront in the fight against poverty and joblessness which is the core mandate of the directorate.

Earlier, Malam Nuhu Abubakar-Fikpo, Director-General, NDE, said he was impressed with the Kaduna State Directorate for empowering the youth, urging participants to pay attention and learn effectively.

The D-G, who was represented by Mr Edene Paschal, Rural, Promotion Officer 1 of the directorate, said participants would be given soft loans to start up their agric businesses after the training.

Meanwhile, some of the participants expressed appreciation to NDE and hoped to start up their businesses soon.

Ibrahim Abubakar, a graduate who had learned poultry, said he had gained more knowledge during the first training and was expecting to get a loan to start up his poultry business.

Mrs Ruth Sebastian said she felt lucky to be one of the selected participants, adding that she intends to be self-reliant and be an employer of labour after the training.