IITA, IFAD to empower 30,000 Nigerian youths in agribusiness

L-R: Chief Agric Officer, Federal Department of Development Partners Project, Chukwudi Nwovu; IFAD Country Director, Dede Ekoue and other participants at the roundtable discussion in Abuja on Thursday. | Credit: Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis.

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The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and several development partners announced plans on Thursday to scale up support for at least 30,000 rural youths through the AgriHub programme.

They spoke in Abuja at a roundtable meeting, with the theme “Creating Rural Youth Employment Opportunities/Support to Agribusiness Hubs in Nigeria”.

The gathering brought together development partners, government agencies, embassies, financiers and private sector actors seeking to unlock fresh opportunities for young Nigerians across the value chains of rice, cassava, soybean, tomato, groundnut, and sesame, among others.

Addressing journalists, IFAD Country Director, Dede Ekoue, explained that the programme, which entailed extensive hands-on training and linkage to established agribusinesses, surpassed its targets in the first phase.

“In the first phase, it surpassed its targets on two tracks. One track is about youth employability, and it achieved more than 100 per cent of the target that was set. The other track, entrepreneurship, which helps youths to set up their business, went beyond the target, up to 150 per cent,” she added.

Ekoue added that the pilot phase attracted over 7,000 youths, prompting partners to prepare for a bigger rollout. She listed the Niger Delta’s nine states, Benue, Enugu and Anambra, among the areas to be covered in the scale-up, with plans to extend to the North-East and North-West.

The AgriHub Nigeria Project Coordinator at IITA, Adesanya Omotomiwa, said lessons from the first phase would guide the expansion, adding that the scale-up phase would focus more on fragile and conflict-affected areas.

“Looking at how we have impacted about 7,200 youths in the first phase, we are hoping to leverage those lessons learnt, place more people in jobs and support about 30 per cent of our beneficiaries to start their own businesses,” he stated.

He explained that job placement and monitoring were key features of the programme.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who was represented by a Director in the ministry, Mrs Iluromi Adebola, said the initiative aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

“Government’s presence at this event speaks to a shared commitment in unlocking the tremendous potential of rural youth and transforming Nigeria’s food systems through innovation, skills and enterprise,” he added.

In addition to creating over 7,000 jobs through agribusiness hubs establishment in both rural and semi-urban districts in the last five years, the participants described the AgriHub initiative, piloted by IFAD and implemented by IITA, as one of the most promising youth-focused agricultural interventions, given its outcomes in employability, enterprise creation and linkage to markets.

The initiative also received additional support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and the Visa Foundation.

The PUNCH journalist, Adebayo, has over 20 years of experience covering politics, health, metro, entertainment and properties

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