By OsaigbovoIguobaro Benin
Sixty ex-militants from the oil producing communities of Edo and Delta states have been trained by the Federal Government under its Amnesty Programme on fish farming.
The facilitator of the programme, Princess Ethel Eweka, of Obax World Wide, said the programme was designed by the federal government re-integrate the ex-militants into the society and reduced unrest in the Niger Delta region.
She spoke at the one-week entrepreneurship refresher training programme which held yesterday in Benin City.
Eweka, said the ex-militant drawn from Edo and Delta States were being trained on fish farming so as to be self-employed as well as employers of labour.
“The training is in segments, the first segment was to train them on fish farming, fish processing while the third segment is equipping them with all the equipment and tools needed to start business like land, feeds, fish pond, water tank, borehole, generator among others,”
She assured that the federal government will opened an account for them, registered a busines name for them with Corporate Affair Commission (CAC) and monitor them for three months to know their challenges and ensure success of the programme”.
“The programme will last for one week. During the training, they would be trained on entrepreneurship skills, fish processing, breeding and feed production. As part of practical, they will visit fish farms to see how fish reared and be able to stand on their own,” she said.
She explained that government gave the ex-militants the option of choosing trades they need empowerment in order to ensure sucess of the programme.
One of the trainees, Whisky Joe Emotongha, commended the federal government for the training which he said will make them self-employed and employer of labour.
He called on the government not to reneged on its promise of providing tools for them, saying that their colleagues who were trained in the past were not empowered.
