Mrs. Obaseki with some of the beneficiaries

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Wife of Edo State Governor, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, has flagged off the second phase of empowerment programme for women in the state.

The project which began in March 2017, in collaboration with the Market Development in the Niger Delta, is partly to discourage irregular migration, and will empower 18,000 beneficiaries from across the 18 local government areas of the state.

The pilot project empowered over 350 women, and is expected to boost the economy of the state with over N2.5 billion.

Organised in collaboration with the Market Development in the Niger Delta, the project was kick-started with training conducted by Another Farm for poultry owners in Benin City who have the capacity to breed over a thousand birds each.

The poultries will serve as mother units from where the day-old Noiler birds will be raised to four weeks for onward distribution to women across the state that will be empowered to off-take the birds and grow them for business purposes.

While addressing the poultry farm owners, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki stated that the benefit is to everyone in the state, irrespective of political party affiliation.

“I did not tell them to look for party people, but for the most capable hands. It is about empowering our people; its about developing our state.

“This project is aimed at creating employment opportunities for vulnerable women and youths and returnees as a means of mitigating the popularity of legal and illegal migration,” she said

Also speaking, a technical assistant of the project on Noiler birds, Emmanuel Azubuike, revealed that the project will bring in not less than N630 million benefit to the value chain in this first phase of the breeding.

He said; “If each of the 18,000 beneficiaries from across the 18 local government areas​ is to get 50 birds each, that will amount to 900,000 birds in all.”