NASFAT members undergo agric business training

One thousand members of the Nasrul-Lahil-il-Fath Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) are currently undergoing trainings on agric business, to add their quota to food production in the country.

The society has also registered a cooperative society known as Green Migration Agric Cooperative Society, which subscribs to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) Anchor Borrowers’ programme designed to provide assistance to cooperative farmers.

Speaking at a seminar for the missioners, NASFAT Chief Missioner, Imam Maruf Onike Abdul-Azeez said clerics have no excuse to engage in untoward practices in order to make ends meet.He said the empowerment programme would boost their financial buoyancy and enhance their capacity to meet their obligations.

Abdul-Azeez said: “The mission of NASFAT is to develop and enlighten Muslim society nurtured by true understanding of Islam for spiritual development and welfare of mankind.

“If the Imam is not financially independent, how will he be able to carry out his assignment? That is why we have made it part of our duty as the headship of the mission board to ensure that our missioners are financially empowered.

“We have set up many initiatives; one of it is called missioners in Agric. The initiative is to acquire land somewhere for missioners, introduce them with the best practices in farming, access funding from government agencies and then let them operate as farmers.

“Imams and missioners go to the same market, send children to schools and have other financial obligations to discharge too like non- clerics of the society.

“Therefore, they need to be empowered in order to bring out the best in them and to turn them away from turning themselves to beggars and engaging in untoward activities.” At the seminar, agriculture firms and government agencies, including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) were on ground to educate the missioners on best agronomic practices in farming.