The Federal Government has stated that it has implemented various programmes and schemes to support young agripreneurs in building their businesses and contributing to Nigeria’s economic growth.
Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture and Productivity Enhancement, Kingsley Uzoma, made this known at a panel discussion organised by Mastercard Foundation on the sidelines of the Sahel Group Changemakers Conference in Abuja.
Uzoma observed that, despite the government’s rollout of numerous youth- and women-targeted initiatives to support agribusinesses and remove policy bottlenecks for young entrepreneurs, many are not taking advantage of these opportunities.
He pointed out that President Bola Tinubu has set up entrepreneurship opportunities and other support systems to allow young people to thrive, such as the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro Pocket, which ensure that the youth and women are prioritised.
Another intervention of note he mentioned was the Value Chain Intervention Programme for Northern Nigeria, which, according to him, addresses food and nutrition security, strengthens post-harvest and market systems, as well as supports women and boosts market linkages.
Uzoma said, “Women and youth are very central to Mr President’s transformation agenda, and the agricultural policy is being driven partly by this. Mr President has made sure that none of these interventive policies are hindered by executive policy.”
The Mastercard Foundation session was designed to urge policymakers and leaders in the agri-sector to support youth and women entrepreneurs to break barriers with regard to government commitments to programmes, inputs and financial support.
Other panellists at the event observed that young entrepreneurs must be deliberate in taking advantage of available business opportunities.
Executive Director of the Policy Innovation Centre, Osasuyi Dirisu, explained that a good entrepreneurship policy must take into consideration the needs of its target group and must be able to specify how it can help achieve those needs.
She added that higher interest rates, multiple taxation and other informal taxes, for example, often present constraints to accessing loans by women entrepreneurs.
“One of the things that we are passionate about in policy innovation is not just about developing a roadmap and walking away, but we use evidence to think about different situations that will work—for example, providing loans and some form of business support to scale businesses.”
She pointed out that evidence-based policies are able to attract a wide range of support from key players in the sector.
While encouraging young entrepreneurs to scale their businesses by leveraging the opportunities provided under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), National Coordinator of the AfCFTA, Segun Awolowo, noted the importance of being able to tap into the opportunities presented by the agreement.
“The AfCFTA has a programme targeting women and youth, so over the last two years, what we have done is to look at this particular demography to prioritise them by establishing a product of opportunity for them,” he said.
He added, “Through programmes like this, we want to ensure that our entrepreneurs are business export-ready and that they are able to access all of the processes involved. The agreement also targets agribusinesses, particularly women and youth who only produce for the local market. This means there is an opportunity that we have, and they need to know how they can access it.”
Twenty-six-year-old Rifkatu Williams, a small-scale farmer and participant of Project Juriya by the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Sahel Consults Limited, observed that the lack of access to farmland and stereotypes remain fundamental issues impeding young female agripreneurs.
“I had to negotiate for land with my father and brother through a 50/50 sharing formula of the proceeds before I was allowed to cultivate any land,” she told the panellists.
For Deborah Shaba, a Kaduna-based poultry farmer and participant of the I-Youth programme, also by the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), access to finance and start-up inputs are constant challenges to most young agripreneurs.
She said many youths interested in the agric sector are unable to access government support to kick-start their businesses.
She added that as a Person With Disability (PWD), she suffered discrimination and exclusion while struggling to earn a living, which is an added challenge for young agripreneurs like herself.
