Abia state governor, chief TA Orji has pledged his administration,s willingness to partner with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to alleviate poverty among the Abia populace.
The governor made the pledge at the Government house, Umuahia when he received in audience the country programme officer of IFAD in Nigeria, Dr. Ben Odoemena and his team.
He said that his administration aligns itself to the aims of IFAD which is specifically to alleviate poverty,adding that the Abia state government has taken it upon itself to empower the youths who form the engine room of every society.
According to him, the Abia state government under its youth empowerment programme recently gave out 200 vehicles to unemployed Abia youths to keep them occupied.
He used the forum to thank IFAD for extending the duration of the programme in the state by two years saying that it will afford the state opportunity to improve on its performance.
Earlier, the country programme officer of IFAD in Nigeria, Dr. Ben Odoemena who was in the state to interact with the governor about the performance of the programme in the state and the response of the people explained that the bottomline of the programme is to reduce poverty and expand the economic base of the rural areas through the involvement of the youths.
He disclosed that the programme is working in 9 local governments of the state while Abia ranks among the 5 states doing well in the programme and commended the governor for triggering poverty reduction in the state.
He disclosed that the programme has been extended by two years due to the excellent performance of the state and commended local government chairmen in the state for living up to their counterpart fund obligations.