In a bid to complement federal government's effort at taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, the National Agricultural Mechanization Cooperative of Nigeria, NAMCON, has empowered 1,500 residents of Kaduna spread across the 23 local government areas of the state.
The target is to train and empower the beneficiaries mostly women in poultry farming
President of NAMCON, Dr Aliyu Waziri, made the disclosure to newsmen in Kaduna at the inauguration of National Agricultural Mechanization Cooperative of Nigeria, Kaduna state chapter.
He also flagged off registration and accreditation process for applicants in the women nurturing birds for wealth empowerment program; a scheme, he said will alleviate poverty, provide food security for women farmers and make readily available opportunities for women.
"Today is a special day for us, God has shown us mercy for us to be able to inaugurate our Kaduna coordinators, the local government including the zonal coordinators under NAMCS program for human-based wealth.
"This is a program to assist the government to create jobs and alleviate poverty, and also help them curb food insecurity across the nation. We are doing this by giving a million people jobs and avenues to create jobs for themselves.
"In mechanized farming, we have a target to empower 15 million people in Nigeria in poultry. We have a target to empower 250 individuals across the 774 local government areas of the country," he said.
Also speaking, National Vice President and Director Planning and Operations, NAMCON, Dr. Aminu Abdul, said the program will afford women and youths opportunity to make meaningful contributions to the growth of the economy.
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"We are here today to take another bold step towards history, towards unlocking the agricultural sector and to see how we can maximise the hidden potentials of the agricultural sector.
"This program is strategically designed to take advantage of the opportunities that is available in the poultry business value chain, to create job opportunities for our women. You will agree with me that over 80 per cent of our women are still at home and not working, hence the essence of this program.
"For us at NAMCON, we created this system for women who can be at home while taking care of their families and also earn money to support the family, and that is the origin of women nurturing bed for wealth. It is basically to empower women," he added.
The event was witnessed by stakeholders including Sanusi Abdullahi Abubakar, Kaduna State Coordinator of NAMCON who called on the beneficiaries to make use of the opportunity and prepare themselves to be economically independent.
