The Special Adviser to the Governor on Rural Development, Mr. Nurudeen Yekinni Lanre-Agbaje has expressed the determination of the administration of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu to empower more youths in Lagos State with the necessary skills and resources to make them financially strong and self-reliant.
Speaking at a one-day training programme for farmers and youths in Ikorodu Rural Division, Agbaje opined that the essence of the continuous training and retraining programmes for farmers and youths in all the rural divisions of the state is to ensure that the youths are meaningfully engaged to keep them away from social vices and criminality while exposing them to legitimate means of making money that can keep them financially stable.
Charging the participants for not seeing the training as a mere jamboree, he advised them to be involved in every aspect of the training to take home valuable lessons that would impact positively on their fish farming activities.
The Special Adviser promised the participants of more government interventions and empowerment programmes aimed at improving food production in the state; admonishing the participants to utilize every opportunity provided by the government to improve their living standards.
Also speaking in the same vein, the Director/CEO, CERUD, Mr. Musbau Balogun charged participants to adopt whatever new techniques that are learned at the training to improve their fish farming business to reduce the scarcity of fish production in Lagos state in particular and Nigeria in general.
Responding, the participants at the workshop thanked the Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu administration for the continuous training and empowerment for the youths and farmers in Lagos state, they, however, requested more empowerment for the farmers, particularly in the area of making fish feed available to them at an affordable price.
About 250 participants from Ikorodu Rural division and its environment attended the training programme where they were taught hatchery, fingerlings production, bull stock breeding, fish processing, mitigating risks, marketing techniques and other relevant skills in the agricultural value chain.