The Benue State Pilgrims Welfare Board said it entered an agreement with a major hospitality company to train 20 youths in different skills in the Middle East.

The Board’s Chairman, Rev. Fr Michael Melladu, disclosed this during an interview on Friday in Makurdi.

Mr Melladu said the board entered into the agreement with a company known as Thabo, to recruit and train some young people in its skills and vocational centre and also offer scholarships for others to study in the company’s schools.

The chairman said that in the first phase of the agreement, six youths would go to Türkiye to learn furniture production, 10 would go to Israel for agricultural training and four would go to Jordan for hotel management training, bringing the total to 20.

He said, “When I came in, I introduced a deliberate policy in the board, a policy that some religious purists might have considered scandalous. The policy was simple: while we view pilgrimage as a purely religious affair, for the people in the countries we visit, it is business. We take billions of naira from Nigeria and pour it into their economies, but what do we get in return?

“So, I decided to strike a bargain. We met with a major hospitality company in the Middle East during a meeting in Abuja. The company also operates schools, produces furniture, and runs other businesses. I told them that since the creation of our state, we had been constant customers, and it was time we benefited too.’’

(NAN)