As part of measures to empower young veterinarians set up businesses and create jobs for the teeming Nigerians, two groups, the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, NVMA and the Farm Alert, have empowered them with a total of N42million as grant.
Nine young veterinarians, popularly called “vetprenuers” were given N1million each as start-up capital at the third edition of the award held on Friday in Abuja.
National President of NVMA, Dr. Moses Arokoyo, revealed at the event that since the inception of the initiative, young veterinarians have been given N42million as start-up capital to support their entrepreneurial skills for national development.
Arokoyo, who disclosed that 80 percent of veterinarians in Nigeria are in the private sector, stressed the need to empower young veterinarians to become entrepreneurs.
He said: “Today, we are doing what we call Vetpreneurship 3.0, as we have done the first and second phases of the programme. This is the third.
“We are giving out N9million to awardees. These are people who have gone through processes we have developed.
“So, by the time we give out N9million today, we would have given out N42million from last year till date.
“We are trying to empower our young veterinarians who have graduated from school in the last five years.
“We want to empower them to step out with courage to become entrepreneurs. We have found out that any profession is as strong as its private sector.
“We have about 80 per cent of our Veterinarians in the private sector. The plan is to encourage them engage in entrepreneurship so that we can build a solid community and solve the problem of unemployment in Nigeria.”
In his remarks, the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Federation, Dr. Musa Inuwa, urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the start-up capital given to them, promising that the Federal Government would continue to provide an enabling environment for them to thrive.
He maintained that veterinarians have crucial role to play in the development of livestock sector, reminding them about the huge opportunities that abound within and outside of the country in the dairy export especially following the creation of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development by President Bola Tinubu‐led administration.
Also speaking, Professor Abdulkadir Usman Junaidu, former Commissioner for Animal Health and Forestry, Sokoto State, described the empowerment of young veterinarians as “best business initiative in the recent years.”
Junaidu expressed optimism that the initiative would create more jobs, generate wealth and have multiplier effect on the economy.
One of the beneficiaries of the grant, Dr. Agboola Waliu Olasunkanmi, said the money would enable him to equip his mini-veterinary diagonistic centre located in Lagos State.