The first phase of the ‘empowerment’ programme would be completed in March.
No fewer than 500 rehabilitated male and female drug addicts in Kano State are set to be ‘empowered’ with livestock, by the National Agriculture Land Development Authority (NALDA).
NALDA disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday by its Executive Secretary, Prince Paul Ikonne in Abuja.
According to the statement, 200 males and 300 females rehabilitated from drug addiction will get goats and cows.
The first phase of the ‘empowerment’ programme would be completed in March.
Hundred women are said to have already been given three goats each while 200 youths got a cow per two persons.
The agency said the beneficiaries had received training in animal husbandry and financial capacity building to give them a good chance of attaining success.
“If beneficiaries are left without empowerment, they will revert to drug abuse.
“This is a way of keeping them out of drug and engaging them meaningfully. We have empowered the first 300 beneficiaries; the remaining 200 beneficiaries will get the empowerment by March,’’ Iknone stated.
He said NALDA was partnering with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and encouraged more organisations to rehabilitate drug addicts, NAN reports.
He said, "Those who got cows would sell them in three months and keep the profit while the capital is re-invested in buying new cows for them.
"Monitoring of the beneficiaries would be easy as they’d transact the business of selling the cows at abattoirs under the supervision of the abattoirs’ associations.
"The fund revolved, it would be easier to empower more people and get many more off hard substances, NALDA’s primary target are abattoir-based, drug-addicted youths.
“Women who got goats would rear them for between six months and one year depending on the size.”