…As Obi blasts FG’s Trader-moni scheme

By Festus Ahon & Ochuko Akuopha

ASABA—GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has said the state is set to become a major grower of rice in the country with the coming on stream of the Delta Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme, YAGEP Rice.

Gov. okowa

Speaking during the exhibition of products and services by over 4,000 beneficiaries of the state government’s Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Program, STEP, and YAGEP under the Job Creation Scheme, Okowa said the programmes had recorded “satisfactory success rates of between 57 percent to 66 percent across respective enterprises.”

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He noted that the annual economic growth rate of the services sector in the state which was 8.9 per cent as at 2015 and improved to 13.2 per cent in 2017.

According to him, “there is also improvement in the agricultural sector from 8.6 per cent in 2015 to 13.3 per cent in 2017” as a result of the empowerment schemes of his administration.

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Obi blasts FG’s Trader-moni

Also speaking at the event, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Vice Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi berated the Federal Government for what he described as a complete waste of time and resources on its TraderMoni social welfare scheme.

Obi said: “What Governor Okowa is doing through the job creation office, training people and giving them the funding to start their own business when you compare it with the TraderMoni… I don’t want to compare them, how can you give people N10,000 without training? Who do we even know that they are giving the money, how would they collect the money? Here we train them and support them with funding.