Africa Lead, in collaboration with Leap Africa, PAYNA, Africa Harvesters and Fresh and Young Brains, recently held a training programme for young entrepreneurs on agribusiness development, with the aim of building capacity of African agriculture professionals to develop, lead and manage structures in the sector.
The training provided an opportunity for the youth to show their skills, creativity, and innovativeness in agribusiness, and also relate with other youths, development partners and stakeholders in the sector.
According to the Africa Lead Training and Non-state Actors Manager, Cecilia Addae, the organisation is building on its existing leadership training programme and envisions working with the youths, women and entrepreneurs to start up and expand agri-business along profitable value chains, adding that the training course is dedicated to develop the capacity of entrepreneurs in agribusiness identification, planning and management in order to strengthen startups and expand existing enterprise
“Africa Lead works to help realise Feed the Future (FTF) goals of reduced hunger and porverty, by building the capacity of Africa agriculture professionals, institutions and stakeholders to develop, lead and manage the structures needed for the transformation process,” she said.
According to the lady, the FTF programme of the USAID supports the advancement of agriculture transformation in Africa, as one of its mandates is to promote the inclusiveness of youths and women in the transformation process
The Lead Facilitator/Trainer, Lilian Adegbola, said the organisations have been working to promote capacity development on leadership in the Agribusines sector across West Africa and to also set up a pilot programme in Nigeria, where the country would not rely only on subsistent farming but increasing productivity in the value chain and to safeguard food security in the country by training agripreneurs.
She added that the youths have been equipped to be able to identify the gaps along the value chain and bridge them with their skills.
“The problem a lot of youths have is that the have the idea, energy, but they don’t have a business plan that is bankable, nor know how to identify them,” Adegbola stressed.
She, however, urged the government at all levels to connect with its citizens to have a bottom-line approach in solving food security in the country rather that creating policies without implementation.
Africa Lead II is an USAID primary capacity building programme in Sub-Saharan Africa, which provides continuous targeted assistance to support and advance the Africa-led agricultural transformation as proposed by the African Union Comprehensive Africa Development Programme (CAADP).
