PRESS RELEASE
Wife of the Osun State Governor and initiator of Women and Children Development Initiative Foundation (WOCDIF) Mrs. Omolola Oyinlola has appealed to government at all levels and corporate organizations to establish model cottage industries that would create job opportunities for young school leavers.
She made the appeal while commissioning a gari processing centre built by her office at Oke-Osun farm settlement, Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
She noted that if such industries were established in all the nooks and crannies of the country, the nation’s potential labour force would stop roaming about the streets.
The wife of the Osun State Governor who is also the initiator of WOCDIF disclosed that she decided to establish the gari processing centre in order to engage the ever increasing women labour force in a productive venture that would improve their living standard.
“It is to create job opportunities for some school leavers, unemployed youths, single parents, widows, physically challenged persons and indigent widows in our rural communities. The idea is also to alleviate poverty among our teeming women population wallowing in abject povertyâ€, she added.
Mrs. Oyinlola noted that the traditional method of processing garri in rural Africa made it unhygienic adding that all hands must be on deck to produce quality garri and other cassava related products for home consumption and exporting to foreign countries to boost the nation’s revenue earnings.
“If we all decide to improve on the quality of the garri we produce in our local communities, more people will develop interest in buying garri thereby increase the earning in this sector by our poor farmersâ€, she said.
The wife of the Governor therefore appealed to the settlers of Oke-Osun farm settlement to see the garri processing centre as their on project by patronizing the centre and guarding the machines jealously to ensure its successful operation.
Responding on behalf of the settlers, the president Oke-Osun farm settlers, Alhaji Razaq Adeleke appreciated the gesture of the wife of the governor promising that they would ensure proper use of the centre.
Ibrahim Alege,
Media Assistant to the Wife of the Osun State Governor.
December 2007.
