We’re Committed To Providing Food Security, Jobs – Jigawa Govt

Jigawa State government has said it is committed to providing food security for the country and creating job opportunities for youths, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

The commissioner for Information, Youths, Sports and Culture, Hon. Sagir Musa Ahmed, stated this when members of the Presidential Media Team, led by the special adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, visited the state.

The tour was part of the ongoing visit to federal and state government projects in the Northwest region, initiated by the Governor Hope Uzodimma-led Renewed Hope Ambassadors.

The commissioner said the administration of Governor Umar Namadi had invested heavily in agriculture to boost food production and skills acquisition to take the youths off the streets.

“Jigawa State is an agrarian state. We are the first producer of hibiscus in the country. We are the first in sesame. We are the first in wheat, sorghum, and so many other crops.

“In fact, we are the second largest producer of rice in the country. Even in the last season, during the wet season, we have been able to cultivate over 200 hectares of rice across the country. We are the first in the country in terms of wheat production.

“So as you come here, I welcome you very warmly on behalf of His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Jigawa State, the Agricultural Governor, who is doing well to see how he can improve agriculture in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly in providing food security to the country,” Ahmed stated.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Jigawa State Agricultural Mechanisation Agency, Dr Ado Nasiru, said the administration of Governor Namadi established the agency to increase food production, provide employment opportunities, and increase farmers’ incomes.

Nasiru said through the agency that the state government procured 300 new tractors with 80 boom sprayers, 60 combined harvesters, 150 rice seeders, 150 maize seeders, and other implements.

“We are waiting for Mr President to come and commission the company officially. Everything is in place, and our farmers are eager to start reaping the benefits of the equipment. All things are in place, and we are very happy with what the governor is doing in the state,” he added.

At the Renewed Hope Technical Services Limited in Dutse, the state capital, the Director General of Jigawa State Economic Empowerment and Youth Employment Agency, Habib Ubali, said young people are being trained in construction and fabrication at the centre, where they are also accommodated.

“We are going to use it in training our young people to be able to compete out there. You can see pipeline welding, and outdoor welding will also be conducted here. So we are going to be able to feed the oil companies with young people working on ships, in the oil companies, and in all related oil activities.

“At the same time, we are also going to be able to construct what we require in the state. Water cabins, bed bunks for boarding schools, hospital beds, and any other required equipment.

“We are going to use that as well as a source of income by selling the equipment that we are producing here. At the same time, we can also open this place to trainees from within the country, from other states, and even from neighbouring countries in the African Saharan Peninsula.

“In the last two or three weeks, when we travelled with His Excellency to the Republic of Liberia, after explaining this kind of project that we are doing in Jigawa, they assured me that they are sending some 30 young people from Liberia to come and train with us.

“Each state, country or leadership that wants to reduce crime, just like the renewed hope of President Bola Tinubu, as well as the Governor of Jagawa State, is to make sure that you engage your youth by giving them something to do.

“Keep them busy. If you don’t keep them busy, they will keep you busy the other way around. So we are keeping them busy by giving them something to do day in, day out and helping them earn a living, he added.

Ubali also conducted a team round the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Multi-purpose Skills Acquisition Centre, Dutse, where youths and women are trained in 14 different trades to make themselves self-reliant and contribute to the economic development of the state and the country at large.

“We have a hotel and event management training camp here. We also have head-dressing saloons, carpentry, automobile, ICT, fishery, CNG conversion, bead making, leather works, tailoring, embroidery, name it. Everything is almost here.

“At a given time, we are training 300 and every year, going by what we have here, we are going to be graduating 1,500 young people. And we have eight centres like this. This is just one of them,” he stated.

The team had earlier inspected the ongoing work at section two of the Kaduna-Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Maradi Railway Project, where site engineers said it is 60% complete and that the entire project would be ready by 2027.