The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen.Tukur Buratai, has said that the Nigerian Army Farm and Ranches Limited will bring about economic development and reduce unemployment in the country.
Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai said this when he inaugurated some projects at the 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment on Friday.
He added that it would help to continuously improve the welfare of the military officers and their families.
He also used the occasion to inspect some projects at the Nigeria Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC) Oshodi.
The COAS while commending the Commandant of NAFRC said that the Nigerian Army would further collaborate with the institution to ensure that the officers and their families keyed into the program.
“We have already started farming, we have the Nigerian Army Farm and Ranches Ltd.
“They are into several skills’ development for our retiring personnel which includes farming in areas of agricultural products, poultry, and animal husbandry.
“These are areas we will further collaborate with NAFRC to see that while our officers are leaving the service on retirement, they will have something doing and you know the space is wide.
“We will like to carry their families along, although, presently their focus is only on the service personnel from the Armed Forces it is expanding to include their families and other civilians,” he said.
He said that the farming aspects would help to reduce unemployment, which would, in turn, reduce insecurity in the country.
“We are going to ensure that our children, wards, wives, and husbands key into this programme which will translate into the overall economic development of the country and reduce the rate of unemployment.
“It will also translate into better security for the country,” he said.
Buratai said that the institution was a unique and special one because of the training it had been rendering to the military personnel who were on the verge of retirement.
“The centre is quite unique, a special institution where we train our personnel who are preparing for retirement into society.
“They learn a lot of skills that will prepare them to seamlessly transit from the military service to the city life where they will further be useful to themselves and the society,” he said.
The COAS also said that the welfare of the military personnel was paramount to his administration, saying that a good welfare package was necessary to boost the morale of officers.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the COAS inaugurated two blocks of 49 flats among other projects at the Ikeja Cantonment.
The COAS also visited the Army Children School and the Secondary School in Oshodi.(NAN).
