AfDB targets $1.8bn Agric support for Nigeria, already approves $280m

In continuation of its programme, aimed at promoting food security in the continent, the African Development Bank (AfDB), says has it has approved $280 million, from $1.8 billion loan facilities to support youth in agribusiness in Nigeria .

The bank said it is to send 80 per cent of the approved money to the country through its commercial banks for the better management of the funds.

Disclosing this on Tuesday, in Ibadan at a one-day African Youth Agripreneurs (AYA), organised by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, the AfDB President, Dr Akinwunmii Adesina, said the amount would be used to encourage Nigerian youths, who are interested in venturing into agro-businesses.

Adesina, who was represented by Dr Chiji Ojukwu, a Director in AfDB at the event, said the bank had in the past years extended similar assistance to other African countries, included Zambia, Sudan, DR Congo and Cameroon.

He said Nigeria’s case was given its needed attention in 2016, alongside other assistance, which observers believed was a tacit reference to the $600 million, out of the $1billion loan request the country had received from the institution.

However, Adesina said AfDB had been working with 33 other countries to provide assistance to youths, who are going into Agriculture, adding that the collaborative efforts with IITA, a series of training initiatives, involving financial supports from the bank will see more than 37,000 youths embrace agribusiness soon.

“Towards achieving this goal, each young farmer would be given $50,000 by way of supporting them in the business.

“The $280m that AfDB has approved for Nigeria would not solve the problem of youths in Agriculture, hence we are in search of $1.8 billion to accommodate more than the 37,000 youths so far targeted”, Adesina said.

In his remarks, the Programme Coordinator, Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), Mr Ken Lohento, said: “Currently, there are various job opportunities in ‘Agripreneur’, which does not necessarily mean that those into it would be working on farms.”

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