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Ekiti Residents Urge LG Chair To Focus On Youth Development, Security—-The residents and indigenes of Ikole-Ekiti on Friday urged the Chairman of Ikole Local Government Area, Mr Bayo Omojola to focus on security of lives and youth development.

A cross section of residents and indigenes of the town, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikole Ekiti urged Omojola to give priority to creating jobs for unemployed youths.

The residents said many of the unemployed youths were not happy being jobless seeing their mates busy making money on daily or monthly basis.

One of the residents, Mr Jacob Hassan, a commercial driver, advised Omojola to focus on security of lives of the residents and engage the youth by creating jobs for them.

Hassan said many youths were not happy and comfortable engaging in motorcycle business and internet frauds because of their background.

He explained that most of them engaging in internet frauds were as a result of peer group influence and lack of decent jobs in the community.

“I want to appeal to the chairman of Ikole local government, Mr Bayo Omojola to focus on engaging the youths with decent jobs for monthly stipends.

“Youths that are idle and unemployed can easily be lured into crimes such as kidnapping, internet frauds and armed robbery,” he said.

An indigene of the community, Mrs Bisola Ojo, a trader, said said the current economy challenges being experienced in the country needed both state and local government’s intervention to cushion the effect on the residents.

Another resident, Mr Biodun Aina, a carpenter, advised Omojola to equip the youths by venturing into mechanised farming and agriculture business where they could be gainfully employed.

Aina said it was true that white collar jobs were very difficult to get but the local government should create jobs for the youths in the community to take them out of the street.

He explained that most rituals, internet frauds and stealing were perpetrated by the jobless youths.

“My candid advice for our local government chairman is to improve welfare of the youths by creating means of livelihood for them.

“The state government cannot cater for all the welfare of youths in the whole communities in Ekiti, that is why local governments are created to cater for needs of the people at the grassroots, “he said.

Similarly, Mr Amos Agunbiade, a teacher, advised that the funds allocated for local government capital projects could be used to establish poultry business, fish farming and ventures that would create jobs for the youths.

Agunbiade said not all graduates could ride motorcycles or commercial vehicles for survival but some of the youths could be engaged in transport business if empowered.

He appealed to all the local government chairmen to consider the increase in numbers of graduates on yearly basis and think outside the box to create meaningful jobs for them.

“Some of the youths who are professionals, like teacher, community health workers and lawyers are not gainfully employed.

“A computer Engineering graduate with first class honour is currently riding motorcycles while some are using the knowledge acquired in the university to engage in internet fraud.

“This is the time to engage our youths to enable the community and the society remains at peace now and in the nearest future,” he said.

Agunbiade advised Omojola to give priority to youths development and security of lives and properties during his tenure.

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Nigerian Govt Increases Landing Cost Of Petrol

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Nigerian Govt

Nigerian Govt Increases Landing Cost Of Petrol—-The Nigerian government has increased the landing cost for imported premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, by 4% to N956.13 per litre in October 2024, up from N919.55 in September 2024 .

This change is mainly driven by the fluctuating value of the Naira against the US dollar, with an exchange rate of N1,645/$ used for October, compared to N1,625/$ in September.

Breaking down the costs, the product cost is N887.45 per litre, with additional expenses including freight (N10.37), port charges (N7.37), NMDPRA Levy (N4.47), and storage cost (N2.58), totaling N913.12 per litre . Finance costs, such as letter of credit (N16.53) and total interest (N43.01), push the landing cost to N956.13 per litre.

Petroleum marketers are concerned that matching local and imported product prices may not be sustainable if exchange rates are left to market forces .

They advocate for openness and competitiveness to create a level playing field. With deregulation, marketers anticipate healthy competition in Nigeria’s domestic market, enabling them to source products from cheaper markets.

(VANGUARD)

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Lagos Lawmakers Seek Collaboration To End Food Insecurity

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Lagos Lawmakers

-as council chairman wants subsidy on agric products

Lawmakers of the Lagos State House of Assembly on Friday held simultaneous stakeholders’ meetings with their constituents with renewed commitments to boost food security and sufficiency in the state.

They also called for collaboration by the stakeholders to end food insecurity.

Speaking in his Agege Constituency 1, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, identified food insecurity as a multi-faceted challenge requiring the efforts of the government and the people to resolve.

This year’s stakeholders’ meeting is the ninth in the series and has the theme: ‘Ensuring Food Security for Sustainable Future: Youth Participation and Home-Grown Farming’.

Dr. Obasa said the Lagos Assembly was committed to ensuring food security in line with the United Nation’s sustainable
development goals of eradication of poverty.

“We at the Lagos State House of Assembly are committed to making Lagos an producing state and not just a consuming state in the agriculture value chain to tackle the present-day reality of food insufficiency.

“Our commitment is exemplified through transformational laws and policy supervision in the agricultural sector,” he said noting that with the collaboration of the Assembly, the government of the state has made giant strides in the agriculture sector.

He listed some of the agricultural initiatives to include the setting up of the 34-hectare Ikorodu Fish
Farm Estate which has the capacity to produce and
process 10,000 tons of fish per year partnering
with 400 fish farmers in the State

He mentioned the AGRIC-YES
programme and “the Oke-Aro and Gberigbe Pig Farm Estates that currently partners with 1,200 farmers and have the capacity of housing and processing 88,000 mature pigs per annum.

“It is important to reiterate that, on our part as lawmakers, we have also created an enabling
environment for farming activities to thrive in the state,
particularly through the passage of anti-open grazing of livestock Law in September, 2021.”

He said to achieve food sufficiency, farming capacity needs to be widened while residents should consider animal husbandry.

In his opening remarks, the chairman of Agege Local Government Area, Ganiyu Egunjobi, identified insecurity and non-availability of low interest loan for the youth population as responsible for the food crisis.

“This meeting cannot come at a better time. The problem responsible for the food shortage are many among which are insecurity that has prevented many farmers from accessing their farms. Farming in Nigeria is no longer attractive to the teeming youths.

“I want to suggest to the government at all levels to subsidise farming and also give loans at very low interest to farmers. The government should also improve on existing physical infrastructures in farming communities that would discourage urban migration and encourage youths to embrace farming. Farming and youth unemployment are recurring issues which require multidimensional interventions to tackle,” he said.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Akinyemi Olusegun of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, urged the youths and residents in the state to engage in urban farming.

“In Lagos, we are more than 22 million and as a result we have a huge need for food. People want to eat and engage in food business,” he said urging youths to focus on home-grown farming.

Eromosele Ebhomele
Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly

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