Food security, youth employment challenges form focus of Make-in-Nigeria 2025 conference in PH

Uche Onochie, Convener, Make-In-Nigeria conference series in PH

…Hope rises that Agrictech, agripreneur, and employment which had a handshake in PH may give birth to an agric revolution that would turn the Niger Delta into a job spinning zone, outside oil.

Two of Nigeria’s biggest challenges, food security and youth employment crises, got frontal confrontation at the 2025 Make-in-Nigeria conference and exhibition which recently ended in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, south-south Nigeria.

Conveners said they found agriculture capable of tackling the two critical problems, which would involve use of tech in agriculture to attract young people, thus creating massive youth employment.

The convener, Uche Onochie, said research revealed that in the far past when farming was for everyone, there was no idle man or youth. He said it was when young people drifted away from agriculture that unemployment crept into Nigeria’s lexicology. Other speakers said the type of education that came to Africa put something in the heads of the people but took away what was in their hands (jobs).

For interest to return to agriculture through agritech and agriprenuership, the organisers introduced agric exhibitions and a major pitch for young tech buffs in agric.

A report from the 2025 conference said the series has been anchored over 15 years and that it has continued to champion industrial revival through enterprise, innovation, and partnership.

In his keynote address, Uche Onochie, articulated the purpose of the theme; ‘The Fusion’, saying it is a movement to put technology to work in farming, processing, preservation, packaging, marketing, and export, so that food moves faster, reaches consumers cheaper, and creates livelihoods for Nigeria’s youth.”

The theme was: “The Fusion: A Tech and Agro Expo – Where Technology Meets Agriculture”. Onochie said this represented a decisive stride in Nigeria’s quest to align innovation with productivity, reorienting the nation’s youth and entrepreneurial community toward the untapped opportunities within the agricultural value chain.

The six-day event attracted over 24,000 participants across the globe, an indication of huge interest in Nigeria’s food security issues as well as employment, spanning innovators, startups, agripreneurs, investors, and policymakers.

Supported by corporate partners including MTN, Pop Cola, Capital City Development Limited, and Aero Contractors, the 2025 edition was said to have established itself and the year’s focus on Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta was said to be deliberate. “As a vital node for national supply chains and oil service industries, the region remains underrepresented in agri-tech adoption despite its potential to anchor Nigeria’s food systems. Youth unemployment, underutilized land, and post-harvest inefficiencies have long constrained the region’s contribution to the national economy.”

Organisers said ‘The Fusion’ was designed to address these through policy engagement, digital innovation, and entrepreneurship.

With reference to demographics, the conveners said Nigeria’s demographic reality underscores the urgency: with a population exceeding 250m and nearly 70% below the age of 30, the country’s future stability depends on expanding dignified, productive livelihoods beyond extractive sectors and political patronage.

The Fusion was reported as reframing agriculture as a technology-driven industry, not a subsistence vocation, highlighting its potential to absorb youth talent into high-value service areas like logistics, digital marketplaces, packaging, cold-chain innovation, and export readiness.

During deliberations, two interlinked crises stood out: Post-harvest losses, estimated between 60% and 70%, with some value chains losing up to 80% of produce due to poor storage and logistics; A disconnect between youth and farmers, with young technologists viewing agriculture as low-status work, and many older farmers remaining resistant to digital tools.

The Fusion sought to provide the space and structure for these communities to engage candidly, dismantling outdated perceptions and co-developing a shared vision for transformation.

The conference report says: “By confronting these barriers directly, the convening began the process of building a bridge between technology and agriculture, ensuring that innovation serves those who feed the nation.

The Make-in-Nigeria Exhibition and Conference 2025: ‘The Fusion’, stood as the single largest collaborative intervention aimed at unlocking value in Nigeria’s agricultural sector, reframing it as a modern, technology-enabled ecosystem capable of driving national productivity, food security, and inclusive economic growth.

Read also: Uche Onochie points to cheap and faster food as the future

Approach:

A defining breakthrough was said to have come on the second day of the conference, when participants were divided into structured breakout groups. The report says: “These sessions revealed the underlying reasons for the long-standing divide between the tech and image of farmers at the event.

Farmers, many of whom operate on slim margins, shared their concerns about the usability, affordability, and trustworthiness of digital tools. They highlighted challenges ranging from connectivity and literacy barriers to the fear of over complication or exploitation by intermediaries.

On the other side, tech entrepreneurs were said to be candid about their hesitancy toward entering the agricultural space citing a perception that farming is “low-tech” and unprofitable, and acknowledging their own limited understanding of on-ground realities in rural agribusiness. “These honest conversations opened a new chapter of cooperation and empathy”, the report said.

By the end of the second day, according to the report, the dialogue had yielded four tangible outcomes: Farmers articulated the precise reasons behind their slow adoption of technology, giving developers and startups a real-world brief to recalibrate their product design, pricing models, and training methods. Next, young tech innovators discovered that they could play pivotal roles in the agricultural value chain without becoming farmers themselves. They found that opportunities exist in processing, packaging, preservation (drying, curing, shelf-life extension), digital market linkages, logistics, and export preparation, areas that can generate new revenue streams while solving real problems.

The third point was that both groups agreed to pilot engagements beyond the conference, testing co-designed prototypes and business models directly with farms and agribusinesses across the Niger Delta. The final point was that a consensus emerged that Make-in-Nigeria should institutionalize continuous dialogue through monthly or bi-monthly seminars and workshops, convening not only farmers and technologists but also policymakers, investors, and development financiers to sustain integration efforts and monitor progress.

The discussions illuminated how agriculture represents one of the most diversified and service-rich ecosystems in Nigeria’s economy, a sector that extends far beyond cultivation into logistics, packaging, data services, and exports. Participants mapped out several high-potential opportunity areas that could absorb Nigeria’s vast youth population and attract sustained private-sector interest in areas such as production support; development of smarter input systems, precision agronomy advisory, and data-driven decision tools for optimizing yield and sustainability.

They also examined processing and preservation such as establishing micro and medium-scale facilities for milling, drying, canning, oil extraction, and cold storage to drastically reduce post-harvest losses currently estimated at 60–80%.

Issues of packaging and standards touched on training and enabling producers to meet global packaging and export standards, improving shelf life and creating pathways to premium markets. Export readiness looked at providing advisory services that help SMEs and cooperatives navigate certification, logistics, and foreign market entry.

Digital marketing and distribution looked at creating platforms and digital agents that connect farmers directly with consumers and institutional buyers, shortening the supply chain and improving price transparency.

Other areas included how to build infrastructure for logistics and cold chain systems; services and B2B platforms such as financing, insurance, aggregation, and marketplace solutions that make up the supporting backbone of a modern, technology enabled agro-economy.

Through these discussions, the Fusion Conference was recorded to have achieved something unique: “It replaced competition with cooperation, distrust with data, and silos with partnerships. It became evident to all that agriculture is not merely a survival economy but a frontier of innovation capable of powering inclusive growth and sustainable employment for Nigeria’s youths.

Innovation: Agrithon

Exhibition/Conference 2025 was the introduction of the Make in Nigeria Agrithon, an innovation challenge that brought together young tech minds, data scientists, and agripreneurs to solve real problems in Nigeria’s agricultural value chain.

The Agrithon bridged innovation and enterprise through practical, technology-driven solutions. It was designed to channel Nigeria’s growing pool of youth innovators and tech entrepreneurs toward the pressing challenges of agriculture, from post-harvest losses and inefficient logistics to limited market access and digital illiteracy among farmers.

By connecting these innovators directly with farmers and agribusiness owners during the conference week. The Agrithon was said to have ensured that each solution developed was rooted in real, field-based needs rather than abstract ideas. Out of 38 initial applicants, five teams were shortlisted through a competitive selection process to pitch their solutions on the fifth day of the event.

The selected teams were given full access to the exhibition, conference sessions, and participating agribusiness leaders to refine their proposals in real time. This hands-on interaction was said to have fostered mutual understanding between tech innovators and farmers, allowing each side to appreciate the challenges and opportunities of the other. Highlights and prize fund were said to be final pitch session and this was said to be one of the most anticipated moments of ‘The Fusion 2025’. Before a panel of judges comprising industry experts, academics, and investors, the five finalist teams presented groundbreaking ideas across themes such as smart farming, digital logistics, market linkage, and AI-powered advisory systems.

At the end of the competition, a total of ₦1,000,000 in prize funding was awarded among the top three winners, alongside incubation support and mentorship under the Make-in-Nigeria Business Group. One of the innovative winnings was a AquaTrack: a revolutionary data-driven platform for fish farmers that uses sensors and AI to optimize feeding patterns, monitor water quality, and reduce fish mortality rates.

Conclusion:

Agrictech, agripreneur, and employment have had a handshake in PH and this may give birth to an agric revolution that would turn the Niger Delta into a job spinning zone, outside oil.

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