By Harriet Tornguvan
The Niger State Governor, Rt Hon Umaru Muhammad Bago has announced the release of the sum of Five Billion Naira for the construction of an Ultra-modern Orientation Camp for NYSC in the State.
He also announced the donation of the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Naira for each Corps Member in camp, a trailer load of rice and twenty cows to augment the feeding of Corps Members and Camp Officials during the on-going Orientation programme.
The Governor stated this in his address during the Swearing-in Ceremony of the 2024 Batch 'B' Stream One Corps Members deployed to the State held at the NYSC Niger State Orientation Camp, Paiko.
He said the State Government is going to provide five boreholes in the present camp and also make the camp a more conducive environment for the Corps Members.
Governor Bago also pledged automatic employment into the Niger State Civil Service for Corps Members that studied medical courses in the tertiary institutions.
"We need to feed the nation. Farming is more than hoes and cutlasses. We have invested so much in agricultural mechanisation. We will collaborate with the NYSC and Federal Ministry of Youth Development on how we can inject agricultural mechanisation into NYSC Scheme", the Governor said.
During the ceremony, Hon. Justice Mariya M Ismail administered the Oath of Allegiance on the 1,301 Corps Members comprising 570 males and 731 females.
While signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development at the Government House in Minna, Governor Bago said Niger State is interested in promoting agro-value chain that would increase food support and create employment opportunities, especially for Corps Members.
He added that efforts are in top gear to create 100 farm estates with 10 hectares of land in each of the 25 Local Government Areas of the State.
He also disclosed that the State would re-engineer agriculture through land mechanization for farm house that would provide jobs for thousands of graduates and other categories of youths.
"We have four hydro-powered dams that release over one billion litres of water everyday. We have provisions for animal husbandry, aquaculture among others.
We are creating 100 farm estates and we are also giving our free vehicles to our Staff", he said.
In her response during the signing of the MoU, the Minister for Youth Development, Dr Jamila Bio-Ibrahim thanked the Governor for his immense support for the Scheme in Niger State.
She disclosed that the MoU would further enable NYSC to become self-reliant as the Scheme is vigorously thinking outside the box on diverse areas of youth empowerment.
She implored other State Governors to emulate Governor Bago's gesture.
The Director General of NYSC, Brigadier General YD Ahmed commended the Governor for being NYSC friendly in his administration. He thanked him for the promise of building a State-of-the-Art NYSC Orientation Camp in Niger State.
