A coalition of all youths in Olokoro clan, comprising of fifteen autonomous communities is set to benefit from the Nigerian agricultural industry using fish farming as a model.
This is because fish farming in Nigeria is important as one of the most prominent aspects of the Nigerian Agricultural Industry with over sixty percent of the population earning a living through the practice.
The initiative which will shift youths attention from white collar job to green collar job is expected to record a huge success.
Based on the direction, the Extension center, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) has expressed its readiness to train and empower youths who will be willing to embark on the aquaculture enterprise.
Addressing the youths of Olokoro at Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, the MOUAU Director of Extension, Professor. Ike Nwachukwu said that Nigeria is yet to meet up with the expectations of fish consumers, and hinted that the institution’s goal is to get people who will venture into the fish business for export.
Although the institution designed plans to empower the youths, the women are not left behind as there are also empowerment packages for them. In his words,
“The skill acquisition training which will start with fishery production will house about (10) ten youths, but we will see only (2) two after interviews and tests, who will be fully empowered for the business,
“This recent method of empowerment has an edge over the previous one in the sense that it will empower the beneficiary from the beginning to the end of the programme, unlike the previous one in which after the training exercise, loans will be given to the beneficiary to kick start the enterprise,
“I want to add that the latest development restrain us from empowering more than two persons at a time, and I must say that the university is embarking on the project as part of its responsibility to empower the youth,
“My hope and expectations are that beneficiaries from Olokoro will serve as a model that will send signals to other communities in the Southeast”.
Meanwhile, the perimeter for the empowerment includes raining in two segments, a theoretical aspect in Olokoro and the practical at the institution as well as having a regular source of water supply, residence in Olokoro, a space for the enterprise amongst many others.
