AS part of the efforts at improving the entrepreneurship skills of staff and students of Osun State Polytechnic Iree, a five-day workshop was organised for the polytechnic community on apiary, bee keeping and honey production.
 

 
A volunteer of the United States for International Development (USAID) to Nigeria, Mr. Caleb O’Biren described the apiary farming and bee keeping as a panacea to poverty, saying it is a veritable venture that could boost the nation’s economy.
 
The apiary workshop was packaged by USAID and Winrock International, a Non-Governmental Organisation, as a stable of the farmer-to-farmer programme of the organisation to boost Agricultural technology in Nigeria through trainings and workshops for officials of tertiary institutions and local farmers in the country.
 
The institution’s Media Relation’s Officer, Mr. Tope Abiola, said participants at the workshop were trained on modern technology of Bee Keeping and Honey Production which the USAID official described as a veritable venture that could be used to provide jobs for unemployed Nigerians.
 
Bee keeping specialist Mr. O’biren, an American based apiary and bee keeping specialist, declared that “apiary is a good venture that could be done in local communities with a little capital to produce honey in large quantity”.
 
While explaining the importance of honey and demand for it in all parts of the world, O’biren explained that “honey production is not capital intensive, its production can survive a country, because it is what is needed by all homes in a country”.
 
“It is a daily need that is used for treatment of certain ailments. It is also used to prevent certain deceases which could cause damage to some cells in our bodies”.
 
Explaining why the Osun State Polytechnic Iree organised the training for staffers of the institution and farmers in Iree Community, the Rector of the institution who is the facilitator of the workshop, Dr. Jacob Olusola Agboola stated that it was part of the capacity building and skills acquisition program embarked upon recently by the institution.
 
Dr. Agboola stressed that “apiary and bee keeping is a type of agriculture that we must encourage in our community to engage our teeming youths in the country, who are unemployed, while employed individuals can also embark on it to boost their economic power.
 
He added that it is part of efforts of the Department of Agric Engineering and Bioenvironmental Studies of the Polytechnic to train local farmers in the state on modern Agricultural skills.

The enhanced infrastructures coupled with a conducive and ideal investment have attracted both domestic and international investors to Osun State.

With these, three investors; namely RLG Communication (a telecommunication/electronic company), Omoluabi Garment Factory and a Chinese company that will produce Opon Imo have already been attracted to the state.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this while speaking with Journalists in Osogbo.

The governor also told newsmen that huge achievements were being recorded in the aviation sector with the ongoing airport being constructed in the state.

He said: “The airport project is not being built for the sake of having an airport alone. It is a project embarked upon to attract investment to the state. We can tell you now that we have signed a hanger facility contract agreement with two companies. When completed, the helicopter hanger facility would be the first in West Africa. By all these we plan to make the airport the aircraft hub in Nigeria.”

While saying that his administration was irrevocably committed to the ongoing transformation of Osun into a modern state, Aregbesola noted that it would stop at nothing at ensuring the successful completion of the ongoing urban renewal and beautification projects in nine cities selected for the urban renewal project.

The Governor said, “Every Nigeria deserves to live well anywhere they find themselves. All Nigerians must live in comfortable stead irrespective of where they are their ethnic or religious leanings.

He also disclosed that government intervention in education has started yielding dividends as the state now has the highest rate of primary school enrolment in the whole country put above 80 percent, adding that the state equally leads 35 others with the highest number of female enrolment in the same tier.

According to him, various policies of his government have also reduced poverty in the state to a meager 3.0 percent, the lowest in the federation by the figure released from the National Bureau of Statistics.

“What I can categorically tell you is that every step we take is tied to the lofty idea of making Osun to be self-subsisting and self-sufficient socio-economically.”

Source: http://businessdayonline.com/2013/08/osun-list-gains-of-investment-drive/