The federal government of Nigeria has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bank of Agriculture (BOA) on the implementation of the Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme on agriculture.
The deal was signed by Managing Director of BOA, Alwan Ali Hassan, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN). It is set to adopt agri-preneurship start-up scheme for serving officers and hold pre-retirement training and business start-up schemes for prospective retirees.
Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, inaugurated the Project Steering Committee and the Project Implementation Committee to provide policy guideline and enabling environment to allow civil servants go into farming while in service as well as after retirement as permitted by the Nigerian constitution.
Public service farm estate
A federal public service farm estate, an integrated agriculture estate farm featuring the entire agriculture value chain was created to enhance sustainability of the programme. The public service farm estate would ensure the self-sustenance of the entrepreneurship programme within a short period.
“This is the first series of initiatives pioneered to ensure the welfare of civil servants is accorded a place of priority during and after service,” said Dr. Esan.
Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office (SWO), Dr. Evelyn Ngige revealed that the government was also working with the Bank of Industry, SMEDAN, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) for retirees that are interested in going into oil and gas.
In his remarks, Director Hassan described the agric value chain as very large and urged civil servants to key into the areas they have interest and expertise in particularly farming, fishing, livestock, poultry.
 on the Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme on agriculture.){kind=link}