The Plateau government has approved N3 billion to reacquire Barc farms, a subsidiary of the state-owned Jos International Breweries, sold to a private farmer 24 years ago.
According to Mr Dan Manjang, Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Governor Simon Lalong, the figure was agreed upon after months of negotiations with the buyer of the facility.
“The facility is very crucial to our agricultural revolution programme; that is why we approached the buyer, who agreed to re-sell it back to us.
“The farm has more than 5,000 hectares for agricultural investments; the Plateau people were not happy when it was sold out, so we had to buy it back because it is a major asset,” he said.
Manjang expressed government’s readiness to right the wrongs of preceding administrations, saying that government would always be guided by the interest of the Plateau people.
On other achievements in the last two years, Manjang said that 2,889 persons had been trained in various skills as part of measures to turn Plateau youths into job creators, instead of perpetual job seekers.
He said that the trainees had been empowered to start up their businesses toward building a robust economy, and listed the skills as carpentry, shoe making, hair dressing, catering, leather works, welding and soap making.
Manjang said that the training was facilitated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, through the Plateau State Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency.
According to him, Plateau government paid N2 billion to access another N2 billion facility from the Federal Government to ease access to credit facilities by the trainees.
The official disclosed that each of the 17 local governments had been directed to train 200 others as well, so that more youths would benefit from the skills acquisition scheme.
count | 401
Recent Comments
Mwanchuel Daniel PamMarch 8, 2024 at 11:06 pm
Bob WayasNovember 6, 2023 at 5:30 am
JosephNovember 5, 2023 at 3:47 am