The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Centre of Excellence for Integrated Farming System, has trained 50 youth and women on broiler chicken production in Bauchi State.

Abdullahi Muhammad, director of TETFUND Centre of Excellence, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, said this at the inauguration of a five-day training exercise on Tuesday in Bauchi.

He said the exercise was designed to help the trainees engage in poultry production and cope with the current economic conditions.

Mr Muhammad said plans are ongoing to expand the scope of the training exercise to include youths and women in the North-East region.

“Most of our youth in this region are job seekers, and we want to see a situation where we reform job seekers to be employers of labour.

“We look at what we can train them on that will give them a quick return or generate income in a shorter period of time, and that’s why we came up with broiler chicken production.

”This will give them a return on investment within eight weeks; they can dispose of their birds and bring another set,” he said.

Mr Muhammad urged participants to make maximum use of the opportunity of the programme to have a means of livelihood.

Shamsu Abdu, the head of the institution’s mass communication department, lauded the gesture, adding that the exercise was part of the institution’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to give back to the community.

“I believe that at the end of this programme, participants will learn the practical, theoretical knowledge and skills on how to be self-reliant and employers of labour,” he said.

Also, Musa Adamu, coordinator, World Bank-assisted Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support (L-PRES) Project, Bauchi State office, urged the youths to take advantage of the project to contribute to the development of the livestock subsector in the region.

He said the project focused on key value chains of sheep, goat, beef, and dairy production, hence the need for the youths to avail themselves of the opportunity of the programme.

The rector, Sani Usman, commended the fund for the establishment of the centre in the institution. He called for the expansion of the training exercise to mobilise participation in the programme.

(NAN)