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Cote D’Ivoire sends mission to tap IITA Youth Agripreneur Model

By Gbenga Akinfenwa
11 November 2018   |   3:09 am
Cote D’Ivoire, Africa’s largest cocoa producer, has sent a delegation to Nigeria to understudy the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture...

Cote D’Ivoire, Africa’s largest cocoa producer, has sent a delegation to Nigeria to understudy the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Youth Agripreneur (IYA) Model, as part of efforts to revamp its agriculture and address its growing youth unemployment.
 
The 10-man delegation was led by Karitia Caulibaly, Deputy Director of Cabinet, Ministry of Youth Employment. The team came to get firsthand knowledge of IYA, as the country prepares to sign up to the African Development Bank’s funded programme on youth in agriculture titled: ENABLE Youth.
   
The IYA model is a job creation and mind-set changing programme aimed at attracting young people to agriculture by exposing them to the opportunities in agriculture value chain and at the same time providing training and mentorship.

 
Initiated in 2012 by the Director General of IITA, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, IYA model came to limelight after it successfully drew young people to agriculture with some of them establishing their own businesses and creating decent jobs for themselves. The African Development Bank is supporting the initiative under the bank’s ENABLE-Youth programme.
 
IITA director general, Sanginga, said the successes recorded from the project was recognised by other institutions including, the AfDB and has been adopted for replication and expansion through projects like ENABLE-Youth.
 
The Head of Youth in Agribusiness Office, Ms. Evelyn Ohanwusi, said the training received under IYA had transformed many young people with many of them migrating from job seekers to job creators.
   
The ENABLE Youth Coordinator in Cote d’Ivoire, Guy-Herve Pillah, while giving an update on the ongoing activities of ENABLE Youth programme in that country, said the team has selected sites that would serve as incubation centres for the beneficiaries of the programme.

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