37,000 young graduates to benefit from $280m AfDB agribusiness fund

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has said 37,000 young graduates in Nigeria who would be given $50,000 each from the $280 million approved by the bank to encourage the Nigerian youth to venture into agribusiness.
 
Dr Akinwumi Adesina
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB)
Adesina who was represented by Dr Chiji Ojukwu, a Director in AfDB, disclosed this on Tuesday in Ibadan at the African Youth Agripreneurs (AYA) Forum organised by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.

He said AfDB is working with 33 countries to give assistance to youths in agriculture.

“The $280 million that we have approved for Nigeria cannot be enough; we need $1.8 billion to accommodate the 37,000 youths. This is why we are giving 80 per cent of the money to commercial banks so that they can lend from their own balance sheet and we expect that every dollar we put in would generate five dollars,’’ he said.

Adesina said the programme was for young graduates who could easily be trained on agriculture.

Mr Ken Lohento, Programme Coordinator, Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), highlighted various job opportunities in ‘Agripreneur’ which may not involve working on the farms.

Lonhento said that most youths were not aware of these opportunities, resulting in many of them shunning the agriculture sector.

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