NGO, U.S. business group partner to empower 15m Nigerians in Agriculture

By Aderogba George, Abuja 

A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), FYJIO Group Africa, says it has partnered the U.S. Latino American Chamber of Commerce (USLACC), to empower 15 million Nigerians on agriculture.

Mrs Ifeoma Ejiogu, President of FYJIO Group Africa, said this while unveiling a fish farming project at Tunga Maje in Gwagwalada Area council, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Friday.

According to her, the project is under the implementation of the group’s Movement for Economic Empowerment and Growth in Africa (MEEGA), which it intends to establish also in Mararaba and Kuje for FCT residents.

She said that the group was out to carry out a mandate that would complement efforts of the Federal Government in agriculture, adding that it would positively affect the lives of Nigerians.

She stated that the idea was to bring lives to normal at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that the MEEGA project was all about creating opportunity for people by empowering them.

This according to her is targeted at Small and Medium Enterprises, the youth and women including the less privileged.
Ejiogu stated that the fish farming project was the first of MEEGA initiatives in the area stating that agriculture remained what everybody could practice while working even as civil servants.

She said that some women would be given N50,000 each before the end of August to support their businesses, adding that FYJIO had a lot of projects for African countries.

Ejiogu said that the group was determined to move Nigeria forward with the projects which it intended to put together in clusters through cooperatives.

Dr Lawal Lamidi, a participant at the programme and a lecturer at the FCT College of Education, Zuba, FCT, described the project as timely.

He stated that Africa had been bedeviled by abject poverty noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had also ravaged its economy and needed to be revamped through agriculture.

According to him, this kind of project is a giant stride for Africa continent and Nigeria in particular which will help to lubricate the economy during and after the pandemic.

Mr Paul Attah, another participant and the President of the Mercy of God Cooperative Society, said that FYJIO group was doing a wonderful job.

According to Attah, it is certain that Nigerians will derive a lot of benefits from the FYJIO project going by the launch of the MEEGA fish pond.

“With what the group is putting in place, Nigeria is going to benefit and there will be job opportunities and security,” he said.

Mrs Bello Taofikat, a business studies teacher at the Junior Secondary School, Zuba, commended the group for the initiative.

She observed that money given out by the Central Bank of Nigeria for empowerment would not be wasted if it was used in this way.

According to her, the cluster structure of cooperatives put in place for empowering people will make the project to succeed.

— Naija247news