The Federal Government says it has provided jobs for no fewer than 14,155 rural women and youths in Niger Delta region.
The jobs were created in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise in Niger Delta (LIFE-ND).
Dr Abiodun Sanni, National Project Coordinator, (NPC) FG/IFAD-LIFE-ND, spoke to media professionals on tour of LIFE-ND projects sites on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.
Sanni said the achievement, which was recorded between 2019 to September 2023, had beneficiaries drawn from the implementing states of Abia, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Cross Rivers and Ondo.
Giving the breakdown of the beneficiaries across the states, he said 2,379 women-headed households and youths had been reached in Abia, 2,349 in Bayelsa, Cross River 2,370, Delta 2373, Edo 2, 330 and Ondo 2,354.
Sanni said that the project covered 10 local government areas in Abia, 10 in Ondo, Bayelsa 8, Edo 10, Cross River 10 and 10 in Delta States.
The national project coordinator said that LIFE-ND is a project of the FG/IFAD with the collaboration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) targeted at the disadvantage youths and women headed households in the rural and suburban communities.
He said it was purposely to improve their means of livelihood and make them live decent lives.
“The project promotes community-based on-farm and off-farm business activities along key agricultural value chains as a mechanism for job creation among unemployed youths and women-headed households.
“The project implemented in nine states in the Niger Delta focuses on agricultural communities which are cocoa, plantain, palm oil, cassava, rice, poultry and fishery.
“The overall goal is to realise a transformed rural economy in which the rural population can derive prosperity and equal benefits.
“The objectives are to enhance income, achieve food security and job creation for rural youth and women through agri-enterprise development on a sustainable basis in the region,” he said.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria