In furtherance of the state government’s efforts to create employment through agriculture, the Wife of the Edo State Governor, Mrs Besty Obaseki on Tuesday organised a 1-day training programme on poultry production for 500 widows in the state.
Mrs Obaseki, speaking during the training in Benin, said that the training was geared towards empowering widows and making them independent, as well as providing extra avenues of income for them to take care of their families.
The First Lady also revealed that the programme is in collaboration with the Bank of Industry and Bank of Investment Trust Company.
She said, “I do not believe in giving people fish but in teaching them how to fish. We are collaborating with professionals to train 500 widows on poultry production and to teach them how to make money from the poultry business.
Continuing, she noted that the poultry production programme, which is part of her agriculture initiative for women in the state is a pilot programme and first of its kind in the country.
‘’This programme is a pilot scheme that will be test run in Benin and would be implemented forthwith across the state’’, she said.
On the implementation of the programme, she said that the trainees would be given 40 birds; comprising 20 broilers and 20 layers and feeds to start the poultry production.
She additionally disclosed that the Agriculture initiative tagged ‘Edo Women for Agriculture’ would be launched formally on Wednesday in the spirit of International Women’s Day Celebration.
