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Agriculture can produce one million jobs a month, says Engineers

Nigerian Society of Engineers has urged the Federal Government to pay more attention to agriculture, saying the sector could generate one million jobs in one month.

The NSE President, Prof. Isaac Olorunfemi, made the remark when he led a team on a facility tour of the Faculty of Engineering of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti.

According to him, the standard of facilities at the faculty, instructional aids and the lecturers on the ground, is a template for other universities in the country to follow.

He said, “Every strong economy in the world derives their power from agriculture before they go into other areas. Agriculture is the door.

“There must be an attraction to encourage the young ones. Unless there is encouragement, agriculture will not get anywhere. Agriculture is a place where you can generate one million jobs in one month.”

Olorunfemi said the institution could serve as the industrial hub of Ekiti State by liaising with relevant industries within and outside the country to make maximal use of its training equipment.

The NSE boss, who said he was a member of the team of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria that was in the university some time ago for the accreditation of courses, gave kudos to the management for adding more equipment to what was on the ground then.

“What we saw then was even more than enough and we still have more today. The facilities here are superb and no university in the country has such. Human resources are also great. The college here will be made a template for the teaching of engineering courses by NSE and COREN,” he said.

The proprietor of the school, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), said without engineering, there would be no civilisation.

“We are setting up an industrial park and our students will match theory and practical effectively. To encourage the study of agriculture, we have reduced tuition fees for agriculture students and they can work on school farms and earn income. When they graduate, we will support them to be on their own,” he said.

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