In this piece, JOSEPH INOKOTONG urges policymakers to emulate the African Development Bank (AfDB) by taking bold actions and go beyond empowering to investing in the youth, women farmers to move the nation closer to food sovereignty.
The youth are reputed for providing a substantial reservoir of talent for innovation, creativity, and boundless energy that can drive the revitalisation of Nigeria, especially the agriculture sector. This is demonstrated by IAPrecision, one of the youth, who introduced drones to the agricultural sector that provide farmers with integrated drone services for early detection of problems, and fighting crop diseases and pest infestation.
As Mr. Lamin Barrow, Director General West Africa Region of the African Development Bank (AfDB) pointed out at the recent second interactive session with youths and women in agriculture, growing of crops using Aeroponics, a process of growing plants in the air without using soil being used by Soilless Farm Lab, cannot be overlooked. These are great examples that demonstrate the capabilities of the youth and their potential to thrive.
The African Development Bank (AfDB), as part of the activities to celebrate its 60th Anniversary, encouraged the youth to channel their energies to fruitful ventures.
Indeed, over the last 60 years, the Bank has grown into a trusted partner and the continent’s premier development financial institution. The AfDB’s development cooperation with Nigeria has expanded over the years, especially considering Nigeria is the largest shareholder. Since it started operations in the country, cumulative financing approvals have reached $10.9 billion. The Bank’s portfolio currently stands at $4.9 billion supporting many projects in the public and private sectors.
Over the past eight years since President Akinwumi Adesina assumed office, the African Development Bank has prioritized the High 5–Light Up & Power Africa, Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa, as accelerators for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the targets in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. The AfDB said the projects and programmes supported during this period had impacted over 400 million people.
The Bank’s 10-Year Strategy (2024-2033) recognises that Africa’s progress will be driven by the “young and dynamic workforce, growing urban consumer markets, integration of national economies, huge clean energy potential, and extensive natural resource wealth.” Through the relentless efforts of the Special Advisor on Stakeholder Engagements, Ms. Lola Visser-Mabogunje, the AfDB organised the 1st Virtual Stakeholders Interactive Session in August 2022 that brought together Youth and Women in Agriculture and Diaspora Networks to discuss opportunities in the Bank’s agriculture sector operations in Nigeria in August 2022.
The event helped many youths and Women to gain more knowledge and understanding of the Bank’s activities and how to tap opportunities from the Bank-funded projects in Nigeria, and beyond the borders.
The Youth and Women in Agriculture initiative has since morphed into a robust platform for information sharing, networking, and advocacy. Some members of the group participated in the Feed Africa Summit, held in Dakar in January 2023, where they had the opportunity to meet with other trailblazing youths leading transformation efforts in other African countries.
Under the High 5s, the AfDB has rolled out several flagship initiatives to enable the Youth and Women in Africa to develop and expand their enterprises that will create decent jobs and thriving businesses, in addition to the lines of credit extended to several commercial Banks and financial intermediaries in Nigeria targeting Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The interactive session provided an opportunity to discuss ways of addressing the many challenges faced by youths and women in Agro-business, including access to finance. On its part, the Federal Government has been spearheading various initiatives and programmes to increase production and productivity in the sector in the context of efforts to create job opportunities for the youth and women and combat food insecurity in the wake of the high food inflation currently witnessed in the country.
The virtual workshop on developing bankable business proposals for youths and women in agriculture enhanced the knowledge and skills of the participants in preparing bankable proposals to unlock financial support for their enterprises. The same applies to some documentaries and testimonies from successful agri-preneurs.
Partners like the IITA Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) Project, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), and the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) played significant roles by co-organising the event that inspired and further emboldened the youths and women to pursue their entrepreneurial journey. It was a veritable avenue that helped all stakeholders garner lessons, insights, and concrete ideas that will help the Bank, the financial institutions, and Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to sharpen their interventions with a view to developing a conducive ecosystem for youth and women’s enterprises to thrive.
Arguably, the youths are said to be the present and future of the nation, while women run the economies, don’t default on loans like men do, and are Bankable. Agriculture, a sector with enormous potentials is not just a way of life but it is a mega business.
According to the AfDB, Africa has enough land to feed more than nine billion more people in the world yet it imports food. “By 2015 we were spending $35 billion every year on food imports. We are racing towards $100 billion. We are here to reimagine Africa’s future. A future powered by Agriculture. A future that bucks the perception of agriculture as a low-income, low-status occupation that attracts only 21.5% of youths; where Women, comprising 50.8% of Africa’s population, continue to face systemic challenges including gender-based discrimination, marginalization, violence, and unequal access to education, land, resources, opportunity, and a voice,” the AfDB stated.
Countless young women in rural villages and urban areas across Nigeria possess the determination of young entrepreneurs yearning to succeed in the bustling markets. The resilience of farmers in conflict-affected areas of the north, the innovative spirit in the cocoa-growing regions of the southwest, and the perseverance of agribusiness owners in the recovering economy, all indicate the readiness of the people to contribute their quota to national development.
The inspiring youths, young people diverse in their backgrounds, are united by a common dream and one resolve to transform their family›s smallholder farms into thriving agribusinesses; to leverage technology to transform their ideas into reality and create lucrative livelihoods for themselves and their communities.
Despite their determination, their aspirations are often constrained by formidable challenges like scarce financial resources, and limited access to modern farming techniques and markets.
The AfDB said Africa as a continent is the youngest in the world, and more than 636 million of the population are young people between 15 and 35 years old, a number projected to rise to 830 million by 2050. This demographic dividend presents an unprecedented opportunity for socio-economic transformation, particularly in agriculture – a fertile ground for innovation, wealth creation, and transformative impact. Yet, it is faced with significant challenges.
In Nigeria, 70 percent of the population is under 30, grappling with high levels of poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity. Nigeria’s agriculture sector contributed 25.8 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021 and employs 36.4 percent of the population, according to the AfDB.
The central role of agriculture as a cornerstone of Nigeria›s economy and a solution to food insecurity had informed the decision of the AfDB to embark on many projects in the country. It delivered 6,750 tons of certified seeds of heat-tolerant wheat varieties to 118,000 farmers in the 2023/2024 planting season, which led to the planting of 120,000 Ha of wheat. In all, 277,000 Ha of wheat was planted, and the country harvested over 600,000 tons of wheat grain this year, the largest in the nation’s history.
The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs) initiative is bringing economic infrastructure to rural areas of high agricultural potential to attract investments from private agro-industrialists and entrepreneurs, enhancing productivity, and transforming lives in rural areas. With $4.5 billion mobilized for 28 zones across 11 countries, the AfDB is not just growing crops, it is cultivating entire value chains, creating jobs, and stimulating rural economies.
Together with the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the AfDB provided $520 million to support the establishment of Special Agricultural Processing Zones in seven States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which will allow private agribusinesses to establish industries that process and add value to agricultural commodities. The AfDB Group provided $134 million to Nigeria for emergency food production to help reduce food price inflation by boosting local production of wheat and cassava under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme.
Nigeria’s women entrepreneurs, like their counterparts in Africa face multiple challenges in accessing finance and resources, with an estimated $42 billion financing gap on the continent. In Nigeria, approximately 41 percent of the country’s businesses are led by women, and nearly 23 million women run micro-businesses. However, only 10 percent of commercial loans in Nigeria are directed to women, similar to what persists in other sub-Saharan African countries, according to a recent International Trade Centre study.
It is now time for the policymakers to take bold action and enquire if they are going beyond empowering to investing in the youths, and how the support for women farmers has moved the nation closer to food sovereignty. The innovation, resilience, and determination of the young people and women are the seeds from which a new Nigerian agricultural and industrial revolution will sprout.
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