DANGOTE SET TO ENGAGE NIGERIAN YOUTH WITH RICE FARMING

Over three million jobs will be created as Dangote Group empowers youth on agriculture through its youth initiative scheme program.

As Dangote Rice Limited prepares to hit the market  in 2018 with one million metric tonnes of Dangote rice, a multi-million Naira Youth farming initiative has been laughed in Kogi, it engage unemployed Nigerian students in rice farming.

The youth rice project was flagged off at the lower Niger River Basin Authority, Kampe, Ejiba in Yagba West local government area of the state where youth have embarked on rice cultivation on over 100 hectares of land.

Under the scheme, the Dangote Rice Company will provide the seedling, anti-pest chemicals and fertilisers while the Basin authority will provide the land for the young farmers.

The group Excutive Director, Devakumar Edwin explained that the project is a new dimension to the efforts by the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group, at ensuring food security and creating job opportunities in Nigeria especially for the youths saying this Initiative is in line with the vision and commitment of Dangote Industries Limited to create a new generation of agri-preneur that will change the Nigerian agricultural sector.

According to the Group boss, the decision of the management to start the project was based on two factors,  one is the need to employ youth by empowering them with agriculture. ”The youths are more vulnerable to crimes and other social vices when they have nothing to engage them and this, in turn, affect the nation negatively”. The second factor is the need to strengthen the  on going efforts of producing rice for self- sufficiency so that foreign exchange can be saved.

The group boss added that by the time they will be producing one million metric tonnes of rice next year, over three millions jobs will be created.

 

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