The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), through the Rural Employment Promotions (REP) Department, has disbursed N4.2m loan to 42 farmers in Ogun State.
At the Orientation and Verification ceremony, the Head of Department of REP, NDE Ogun, Mr Omitogun Azeez in his welcome address said each of the selected loan beneficiaries got N100, 000 to boost their agricultural businesses.
The Director General Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo, represented by the State Coordinator, Mr Alao Babatunde Ismail, said the loan disbursed is meant to encourage the farmers and to assure them of the Federal Government’s support. He added that the 42 beneficiaries were drawn from various REP Training programs to benefit from the available loan schemes including – Sustainable Agricultural Development Empowerment Scheme (SADES); Agribusiness Enhancement Scheme (AES); Graduate Agricultural Empowerment Scheme (GAES); Community-based Agricultural Empowerment Scheme (CBAES).
The Head of Department, Rural Employment Promotions, Abuja, Mr Edem Duke represented by Mrs Olaoye Tola, said the loan should not be diverted into other ventures but used for agricultural investment and the agribusiness value chain.
The loans officer for the state, Mr Ajayi Olanipekun told the farmers that the loan carries a moratorium period of six months after which the farmers are expected to start paying back for a duration of three years.
The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), established in 1986, was born out of the necessity for the establishment of a permanent organizational mechanism to tackle the problem of unemployment in Nigeria.
