By Bassey Asuquo
The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS) has lined up empowerment programmes as part of activities to mark the 8th Brotherhood All Youth Assembly (BAYA) Convention that is taking place in Calabar, Cross River State.
Spokesman of the BCS, Patriarch Christ Shepherd Edet Archibong, made this known on Monday at a press conference in Calabar to mark the commencement of the weeklong activities of the 2021 BAYA Convention, scheduled for 13th to 19th September, 2021.
He said that BAYA is an umbrella body for all the youth organisations in the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star worldwide.
According to Shepherd Archibong, who addressed the press conference alongside the Vice Chairman of the Youth Assembly, Christ Ambassador Okon E. Umanah and the Secretary, Divine Vanguard Ukoima Eneawaji, the forum is used to reach out to the youths and inculcate in them the ideals of God and in so doing also get them gainfully engaged.
“When the Youths are gainfully engaged in positive ventures they will not become ready tools in the hands of evil people and enemies of society. A number of programmes have been put in place to actualise this.
“In 2020, which marked its 8th year, BAYA was restructured by the Holy Father to now have an operational arm called BAYA Enterprise Council headed by Patriarch, Christ Shepherd (Hon) Ibinabo Michael West, as Chairman. With this new structure, many activities were witnessed.
“For instance, 210 BCS youths were trained in the year 2020 on Business Plan Writing Skills which was aimed at enabling the youths become skilful in putting up business plans that will be acceptable by fund providers, thereby guaranteeing easy access to start-up capital. At the end of the training the Council created a platform where all the trainees were able to make applications to Nirsal Microfinance Bank for seed capital that will enable them commence their proposed businesses.”, he said.
The Spokesman stated further that with the remarkable record, the Brotherhood All Youth Assembly (BAYA) Enterprise Council was given the mandate by the Holy Father, His Holiness Olumba Olumba Obu, to develop a blueprint that would provide a comprehensive plan and direction for the empowerment programmes for the BCS youths over the next five years, adding that in response to the divine mandate, the Council came up with a document to chart a new course for the desired future of BCS youths.
“Given the fact that the plan has in its focus, the target to empower directly no fewer than 230 youths with a projective multiplier effect of empowering and generating jobs for another 2,150 youths at the cost of about Forty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (846,950,000); hopefully, to be spent within the next five years.
“Therefore, taking into cognizance the divergence and/or differences in the felt-needs of the youths, the plan has earmarked the floatation of programmes in different areas such as agriculture, education, entertainment, broadcasting as well as sports. These programmes would be implemented in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 respectively, with the hope that it will truly meet, correspond and respond closely to provide lifelines for our youths.
“Hence, with little re-orientation of the minds of the BCS youths towards embracing entrepreneurial ventures/business operations, a good chunk of the youths will not only gain entry into a more stable and sustainable source of livelihood but will also glean the golden opportunity to join the league of world bourgeois who control the world economy. This way, BCS youths will gradually and hopefully occupy the frontiers of world economic block thereby becoming footed and available in the kingdom as vessels for the realization of God’s divine agenda and on a larger context, serve as proxies of positive change in all spheres of human endeavours that will manifest in tangible contribution towards the growth of both the national and the world economy.
“The expected outcomes of the successful implementation of the BCS-Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) among others are: conferment of sense of acquisition of Social license among the BCS youths and increased capacity building in spiritual and social organizations.”, he said.
Shepherd Archibong stated that in 2021 about 70 youths have been trained in Agriculture, specifically in organic farming. He said the sector was consciously chosen because of its inherent capacity to create wealth, which according to him, will improve the living standard of the youth through job and income generation.
“It will also exert a positive impact on the economy (states and national). These youths were selected from the following ten states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Enugu, Kaduna, Kogi and Rivers, which indicated interest in the programme within the specified time frame. They were selected for training in organic farming such as fish hatching and rearing, mushroom, pepper, fluted pumpkin, okro and tomatoes cropping among others. Starter packs were provided for the trainees by the Council to enable them put their skills to use.
“In order to equip the trainees to deal with the teething problems of new businesses, the Council provided a way for them to benefit from the Ease of Commencement of Business (EOCB) package by creating the following Preconditions for accessing the starter packs:
“Encouragement of trainees to form and register cooperative societies in the ten states. Provision of funds for renting of lands for states that may not have easy access to land. Provision of funds for registration of cooperative society for states that can’t afford. Provision of N100, 000 to each of the ten states for purchase of fish feeds for take-off. Provision of 20 mobile fish ponds for the 10 states.
Provision of 4,000 fingerlings.
Provision of seedlings in excess of 500 for tomatoes, fluted pumpkin, pepper among others.”
He also disclosed that selection for the 2022 Empowerment Programme, which is Education, would commence during this year’s Convention (2021), precisely on Sunday, 19th September, 2021.
The process, he said, “will involve contingents from different States picking tickets from lucky dip boxes for the following categories: UTME (JAMB), WAEC and tuition fees.
“This process is expected to produce 175 lucky beneficiaries who will be given certificates for sponsorship on the above-listed categories. This program is an interventionist scheme that aims at the purchase of UTME and WAEC forms and the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships. With this the Council humbly calls on the government and public spirited individuals to assist in this regard.”
Meanwhile, BAYA Vice Chairman, Christ Ambassador Umanah, responding to question bothering on COVID-19 prevention protocols in view of the second wave, said previous convention had over 10,000 participants, but because of COVID-19 the number of attendees for the 2021 convention has been drastically reduce to about 5,000.
This, he said, was to create room for social distancing, adding that a medical team would be on ground throughout the convention period.
