Lagos Govt, IITA Set To Train 13,548 Youths In Agribusiness

The Lagos State Government has partnered the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the Africa Projects Development Centre to train 13,548 youths in different areas of the agricultural value chains.

The state said the initiative would last over the next five years.

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This is based on a statement released on Monday by the State, quoting the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya.

Olusanya said this at the opening of the Young Africa Works Agribusiness Internship Orientation Training held at the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority, Oko-Oba, Agege.

The Commissioner said, the Young Africa Works Project of the IITA would equip over 40,000 youths with agribusiness skill.

She also noted that the initiative would lead 242,724 youths into a more secure work in agribusiness over the next five years.

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In Lagos alone, Olusanya said 13,548 youths including 3,120 secondary school students would participate in the programme.

She said, “I have been told that the Young Africa Works is an approach to agribusiness training and start-up for Nigerians which is focused on improving the livelihoods of youths and teenagers by impacting in them the needed skills to do viable agribusiness within their communities.

“I have also been reliably informed that IITA seeks to provide skills to over 40,000 youths and enable 242,724 young women and men to secure dignified and fulfilling work in agricultural value chains in a five stage model within a period of five years.”

She further noted that the initiative would provide replacement for aging farmers in the agric sector.

Amidst high unemployment and low consumer income, the commissioner said the program would also increase food production and alleviate so many Nigerians from poverty.

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“When we talk about food security, we are talking along the lines of production, linkages to the consumers, productivity required of our farming community such that they also see sustainability around what they do so that they can be motivated to put in more investment within that space such that the financial sector will be able to support and in the process we will see a bigger and more holistic food system in the State and Country at large,” Olusanya added.

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