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By Mohammed Yabagi.
Good times are ahead for Kogi youths as Dangote Group is set to empower them through its multi-million naira rice project in the state.
The project which is mainly an out-grower scheme was flagged off at the Lower Niger River Basin Authority located in Kampe, Ejiba, in Yagba West Local Government Area where youth have embarked on cultivation of rice on over 100 hectares of land.
Flagging off the project, the Group Executive Director of Dangote Rice, Devakumar Edwin, said the farm would employ the country’s youth, with special consideration for the indigenous youths and the community of sighting the project.
According to him, while flagging off the programme, he said it was aimed at adding verve to the ongoing efforts by the Federal Government towards ensuring food sufficiency.
He noted that the project was a new dimension to the efforts by the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group, at ensuring food security and creating job opportunities in Nigeria for the youth.
The initiative, he explained, is in line with the vision and commitment of Dangote Industries Limited to create a new generation of agri-preneur that would revolutionize the Nigerian agricultural sector.
In his words; “We believe skill, knowledge, enabling environment, collaboration and linkages along the value chain are driving forces for economic empowerment and social development in line with the Federal Government policies.
“This project will address the skills gap in Local Rice Production among unemployed youths by providing technical, organisational and financial requirements to them.”
To demonstrate this, he told our reporter that the company is prepared to hit the market with one million metric tons of Dangote rice next year.
To ensure the actualisation of their objectives, the company had a special training for the youth farmers on the dynamics of the rice farming which will see them cultivating the rice paddy on 100 hectares of land, which will then be bought over by the company for processing.
Under the scheme, the Dangote Rice Company provides the seedling, anti-pest-chemicals, and fertilizers while the Basing Authority provided the land for the young farmers.
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