PAP trains additional 1,500 ex-N’Delta agitators, others

From Tony John, Port Harcourt

Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has trained additional 1,500 former agitators for single-digit interest loans offered by the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). 

The training, which took place at designated centres in Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states, was in continuation of a programme for NIRSAL loans which PAP commenced last November. 

The initiative was part of PAP efforts to raise the economic prospects of people of the Niger Delta by attracting financial support for small and medium scale enterprises.  

Speaking at the training programme in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, PAP Interim Administrator, Milland Dixon Dikio, said the focus was to facilitate and enhance single-digit interest loans for entrepreneurs in the region. 

Dikio, who was represented by the Head of Reintegration, Alfred Kemepado, said the training would help the loan beneficiaries to grow their businesses and mitigate risks. 

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Neotaobase Egbe, Dikio urged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the loans to become successful entrepreneurs, warning that diverting the facility would create more hardship for them and further throw the region into extreme poverty.  

At the Yenagoa and Port Harcourt centres, Dikio, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Projects, Godwin Ekpo, asked the beneficiaries to form cooperatives and focus on agriculture.  

A senior Reintegration Officer in PAP, Benjamin Appah, who stood in for Dikio in Warri, explained how the beneficiaries were drawn across the region for the various centres.  

He said: “The names were compiled across impacted communities, PAP success stories, PAP cooperatives and the documented bonafide beneficiaries of the amnesty programme. We received the names through their camp leaders, their cooperatives and the post-training units.  

“This loan is a scheme organised by the Federal Government. However,  PAP decided to bridge that gap and facilitate a training by engaging a consultant who will train beneficiaries and show them the prerequisite of accessing the loans and also guide them through getting a credible  business plan.”