By joshua 
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
A Forum of Mobile Advert Practitioners Of Nigeria, ( FMAPN), in collaboration with Abia State government last week organise two days training workshop for its members and the general public in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
The theme of the maiden edition, “Capacity building initiative for individual sustainability in a fast changing world” attracted participants from Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Lagos, Kwara and Edo States
In his opening remarks, the National President of the Organisation, Otunba Mike Osimen declared that the maiden edition of the workshop was long overdue considering the general economic situation in Nigeria and the nature of their business, taxation, which he described as a seasonal job.
Osimen, described the job of mobile advert revenue collector as a seasonal job, saying that the operators of the industry need other means of generating income for self sustainability when the season is over.
According to him, ” i decided to organize this workshop because of my members who face financial constraints the moment their season of operation was over.
“the urge was further reinforced when i saw on television where one of my members, Muyiwa Adeyemon, an animal husbandry expert giving lectures in Kano. So I felt it worthwhile to equip them with individual skills to survive, adapt and thrive in the fast changing economic situation in Nigeria”.
” today is yet another good day in the annals of our history as an organization. This is a day we have set aside to bring to an end the incessant cash constraints our people have experienced in the past because of the fact that our job is a seasonal job which is, helping Local Government councils to generate revenue and the moment the season is over, our people are often faced with economic hardship because of the fact that they have just only one source of revenue. So we have decided to come up with this workshop with experts in capacity building to teach our members to create diverse sources of income through agriculture”.
He further stated that, they will create revenue for government and also creat other sources of income for themselves so as to ensure that every season is a good season”
He said the workshop became necessary also for all the practitioners to come to together as a body to hear first hand of the recent development from the Abia State government who, through the State governor, His Excellency, Okezie Ikeazu , who has commissioned Forum of Advert Practitioners of Nigeria to be responsible for generating revenue for the state through mobile advert.
He said, “the governor invited me to the government house and during our interaction the governor told me that the state government has terminated the appointment of Mopol Azubuike who was in charge of revenue generation through mobile advert. The governor said he has heard so much about Forum of Mobile Advert Practitioners of Nigeria and has therefore decided that henceforth that FORUM of Mobile Advert Practitioners of Nigeria should take over mobile advert revenue generation for Abia state.”
Speaking to the Press during the workshop, Otunba Mike Osimen declared that he decided to use Edo State for the event because according to him, ” Benin is centralized as this will allow participants from other parts of the country to easily access the venue so that all mobile advert practitioners can converge to ventilate on the Abia State offer and for the officials of the Board of Internal Revenue to interact with our members on ways to harmonize operations with a view to mitigating double taxation.”
The representative of Abia State governor, Mr Agu Ndubuisi, of the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue pointed out that Abia State has graduated from manual documentation of payment and has embraced digital documentation, looking forward to a robust working relationship with the members of FORUM of Mobile Advert Practitioners of Nigeria. Abia State has gotten an app to generate e emblem to discontinue the manually generated emblems and stickers through paperwork.
Also Speaking to the Press at the event, the Chairman, Board of Trustee, Chief Dr. Gabriel. O. Ojioba, said the workshop has become imperative as it would equip the members with the necessary training for self reliance since revenue collectors collect revenue once in a year and after that the revenue collector is idle until the next season.
According to him, ” this training will enable our members to be equipped with relevant skills to enable them have access to multiple sources of income”
He said his organization over the years have been helping various local government councils nationwide in their bid to shore up the much needed funds for infrastructural dévelopment of the country. He observed that his organization has done so much for Nigeria and Nigerians, stressing that his organization, aside from generating revenue for the government, has helped in no small way in generating employment opportunities for our youths in the country.
One of the key speaker at the event, Mr Muyiwa Adeyemon, an animal husbandry expert, said that global food shortage is looming but that Africa has the solution through farming. According to him,” farming is the way to go.”
He said it was very risky to be dependent on only one source of income. He told the participants to engage in farming as means of preparing for their old age as according to him, it is dangerous and awful to be old without any retirement benefits. He took quality time to educate the participants on different ways of creating multiple strings of income through agriculture which includes poultry, rabbit farming, fishery, grass cutters farming etc.
Other speakers included Mr Mac Atasie, Lead Consultant for Abia State government, Mrs Roseline Okoeka Human Development Expert.