By Danzumi Ishaku
Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku has expressed the determination of his administration to make Taraba State the number one producer of rice in Nigeria.
Gov Ishaku disclosed this during a courtesy call on the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus, Mr Vyacheslav Bril at that country’s Nigerian Embassy in Abuja on Wednesday.
Gov Ishaku who was at the Embassy to seek ways in which that country and Taraba State can collaborate for the development of the state briefed the Ambassador elaborately on the development strides already achieved by his administration during his first tenure and called for assistance of the Belarusian government in areas of education, health, skills acquisition and transportation.
He told the Belarusian delegation at the meeting that his administration’s dry season farming has boosted rice production tremendously and created many wealthy farmers in the state.
Gov Ishaku expressed the desire to do a lot more to get more youths in the state productively engaged and taken out of the unemployment queue. He said a lot was achieved through the Hope Afresh Foundation of his wife, Anna Ishaku and the efforts of his own administration to help women and youths become financially independent through the acquisition of skills. He called on the Belarusian government to assist his administration with technical expertise in critical areas of socio-economic development.
In his response, Ambassador Brill promised to facilitate the visit of Belarusian experts to Taraba State to further study the critical areas of technical assistance that the state would require. After the visit, the country and Taraba State would work out a Memorandum of Understanding for a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.
The Ambassador invited Gov Ishaku to visit Belarus to familiarise himself with what the country has to offer Taraba State in terms of technical assistance.
A delegation of the Taraba State government is to meet with the embassy’s team of experts later in the year for further discussion on areas of collaboration.
