The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) said it disbursed N10.8 million as grant to 108 unemployed Bayelsa youths in December 2021.
The State Coordinator of the agency, Mr Aham Osuchukwu, said this during an orientation programme organised for the beneficiaries and 50 participants in Agricultural Extension Training (AET) in Yenagoa.
Osuchukwu said that each beneficiary received N100,000.
He said the training was intended to equip the participants to become self-reliant and contribute to the nation’s economic growth and development.
He said, “It is in fulfillment of the agency’s mandate to reduce unemployment in the agricultural sector that we are here today.”
He urged the beneficiaries to make efforts to repay their loans dutifully, responsibly and timely so that other unemployed persons could also benefit from the facility.
Earlier, the Head of Department, Rural Employment Promotion in the agency, Mrs Maths Wokoro, admonished the beneficiaries not to misuse the loan but invest it in what they had learnt.
Wokoro also advised the participants to take advantage of the programme to become self-reliant and contribute their quota to the nation’s development.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Livinus Osumze, who spoke on behalf of others, thanked the Federal Government and NDE for the gesture and promised to be a good ambassador of the scheme.
