The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) said it has engaged 1,850 Nigerians in intensive skills development along goat production and its value chain.
The agro-preneurship scheme which was executed in two phases, was meant to serve as a source of income to the beneficiaries and accelerate livestock production in Nigeria using the revolving model of empowerment.
In a statement issued by the NDE’s head, information department and public relations, Israel Adekitan, the director-general of the directorate, Abubakar Nuhu-Fikpo, stated that the empowerment programme was among federal government efforts towards curbing unemployment especially among the youths and women groups.
According to him, participants were trained in the management of goat housing, breeding techniques and methods, prevention and diseases control, artificial insemination, natural mating, processing and packaging of goat meat, marketing of goat products including meat, milk, skin and waste.
He stressed that the empowerment will play important role in the socio-economic and environmental lives of the farming communities in income generation and supply of food for the local population.
The DG noted that through the training scheme, participants will be able to improve their livelihoods, reduce rural-urban migration, provide raw materials for leather manufacturing industries, enhance protein intake for the populace, reduce poverty and create wealth.
He added, “To sustain profitability and viability, participants were also taught the rudiments of basic business training and record keeping. They wereencouraged to produce business plans to enhance chances of sourcing loans from financial institutions for start-off and expansion.”
Commenting on the economic gains and viability of the training scheme, the head of the rural employment promotion programme in the directorate, Edem Duke, said goat production in Nigeria is an economically-viable business venture because of its value chain and high commercial production which have great employment potentials.
Goat business, he said, has wide market share, with all its (goat) products in high demand.
“Goat is a source of meat, milk, hide and skin and manure for farming. The skin is used by tanning industries for the manufacture of leather products for local and foreign exchange earnings.
“The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) recently introduced a spectrum of trainings for the unemployed irrespective of their educational level; this is to further address the challenge of joblessness in the country. Small Stock (Goat) Production Training Scheme is one of the Quick Fix Schemes of the Directorate which are designed to accommodate skills training that has short duration”, he added.
