ONE COMMUNITY, ONE INDUSTRY EMPOWERMENT TRAIN ARRIVES EDE TOWN 5\12\2017

The empowerment moving train of One Community, One Industry in collaboration with the state of Osun government through the office of Enterprise and Wealth Creation arrived Ede for a day seminar on Tuesday the 5th of December, 2017. Suffice to note that the one day seminar train had made stops earlier at Iragbiji, Iwo, Ilesa and stopped at Osogbo for an exhibition when the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibajo launched the Nationwide Small and Medium Enterprise Clinic and the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme.

At Ede, women and men, young and old turned out in their hundreds to benefit in the One Day seminar. The thirteen members team of the One Community, One Industry Initiative were at the Timi of Ede palace civic centre to accredit participants that have started showing up as early as 7:00am.

The distinguished guests at the gathering include the Mogajis and Chiefs that were representatives of the royal father of the day, the Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal (Laminisa 1), representatives of the Office of Enterprise and Wealth Creation, commissioner for Economic Planning and Wealth Creation, Commissioner for Women, Children and Social Affairs and many others.

The representative of the Office of and Wealth Creation in his opening sspeech highlighted the importance of self reliant and the benefits entrepreneurshipwork that he simply as the business of wealth creation. He pinpointed the opportunities that are abound in the State of Osun. In his words "only a lazy man/woman can claim he has nothing to do to create wealth ".

The initiator of the programme, Mrs. Victoria Oluwaseun admonished particpants, particularly younger ones and children to draw some lessons from her true to life story that she narrated. Anyone can rise up to be the best hr or she wants to be. Our background and circumstances cannot be an obstacle to our dreams. She told the gathering to be thankful to the administration of Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for supporting the initiative which according to her is channelled towards enhancing the standard of living of the populace. In her words " the concept of one Community, One Industry is to bring to the public the economic values in some items in the society that people considered as valueless waste." She pointed out that the governor has shown clearly that he needs those who have the knowledge and what it takes to bring out an initiative that will get people to benefit.

The one day seminar started with a talk from Mrs. Esther Akinlawon whose talk centre on processing locust beans into "iru" and adding value to the finished product. In her explanation, locust beans popularly called "iyere" in Yoruba The seed is first cooked to remove the seed coat and then fermented to produce the desired result. When it is fermented, the Yoruba have a way of getting two types from it, the mashed type and the loose or free type, and they are used for different types of soups, but for the same purpose. She ended by showing the preserved and packed powdered form of iru that is an innovation of One Community, One Industry Initiative.

Mrs. JosephineOlayemi, a black soap (ose dudu) making expert from Aagba also presented a talk on the processes of traditional black soap making. For hundreds of years, africans made and used a vegetable-based soap to gently cleanse skin and hair, known as "ose dudu locally it is made with secret recipes passed down from generation to generation, the formulations she exposed is composed of plantain and or banana parts, cocoa pods that are first sun dried and then roasted at a consistent temperature until it turns into ash. The ash is then added to palm kernel oil. This mixture is then heated and hand-stirred for a least 24 hours until it begins to solidify before it’s scooped out and left to cure. Her exposition caught the attention of many of the participants.

The initiator of the programme's presentation centered her talk on " from food waste to animal feed" using cassava peels and animal bones potentially big business for Nigerian women and men

In Nigeria, nearly three million households (mostly women) produce fifty million tonnes of cassava annually. Most of the crop is used for human consumption, but about 14 million tonnes of its by-products, including peels and under-sized tubers are thrown away as waste.

‘We hope the processors will add value to the waste peels and turn this into a sustainable business. Herself a commercial poultry feed manufacturer involved in a feeding trial in the project described the use of cassava peel mash (CPM) in broiler feedstuff as safe, adding that a 50-75kg inclusion of CPM in a tonne of poultry feeds does not affect their performance and it is a good substitute to corn that is getting more expensive day in day out.

She also elaborated on the importance if calcium that is derived mainly from animal bones in animl feeds' composition. She said, “I want our younger ones and children to draw some lessons from my story. Anyone of you can rise up to be the best you want to be. Your background and circumstances cannot be an obstacle to your dreams." She narrated a true to life story of how she started her business twenty years ago buying and burning animal bones and turning same to granulated form for animal feed millers.

Mr Ukonu Ukonu gave a talk on snail farming that is considered to be one of the most lucrative agribusiness one can start with low capital. Yet, it is one of the most neglected animal rearing business. According to him, snail farming provides one of the finest opportunity to make money within a short period of time. He opened his talk by presenting different species of snails and he chose archachatina marginata, the common giant West African snail as his prefered choice for snail breeders because they can grow up to 20cm long, and live up to 10 years.

He elaborately simplify his exposition into the following headings:
1. Type of Soil For Snail Farming

2. Getting The Sails For Farming

3. Constructing the Snail House (Snailery)

4. Snail Food and Feeding

4. Harvesting and marketing the Snails.
To reach the audience conveniently, Mr. Olàdimeji Lasore did the interpretation from English to Yoruba.

The concluding part of the seminar featured Mrs. Victoria Oluwaseun as she presented the traditional Yoruba empowerment that is embedded in local goat rearing. At the end of the seminar participants had oppurtunity to ask questions after which they were regrouped using their areas of interest as yardstick to form them into cooperative groups. The vote of thanks was rendered by the Ede born nollywood artist that featured as Timi agbale olofa in the historical play Ogbori Elemeso.

Vote of thanks....