Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will spend N90b for the nine states of the region in its integrated agricultural programme to train youths in fish, rabbit and pig farming.
Akpabio stated this when the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jerome Pasquier, visited him in Abuja at the weekend, saying the Federal Government conceived the initiative to end agitations in the Niger Delta and to ensure infrastructural development, end youth restiveness and socio-economic challenges in the region.
He also stated that the ministry was seeking to engage consultants to merge the regional and national plans to produce a concise master plan that would address all challenges in the Niger Delta.
Akpabio also stressed the need to engage soil remediation experts to help restore the soil to its natural pollution-free state, which would enhance soil usefulness and prevent endemic poverty in the zone.
According to him, the Federal Government was ready to collaborate with the French Government in the production of virology centres to address infectious diseases in the Niger Delta region.
Akpabio assured the Ambassador that the ministry would be prudent and transparent I managing the financial support the French Government would offer the ministry.
Jerome Pasquier thereafter commended the government for putting in place measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, encouraged the Federal Government to develop vaccines that would curb infectious diseases.
He indicated the French Government’s readiness to co-operate with Nigeria in the production of Covid-19 vaccine, stressing that Nigeria should collaborate with other African countries to make the Covid-19 vaccine production a reality.