NACOMYO urges youth to key into agribusiness to reduce unemployment

As regards the rising unemployment in the country and the quest for solution, the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO) Lagos State Chapter has said that youth’s involvement in agriculture could redeem the situation.

At the third edition of the group’s Midterm Retreat and Extra Ordinary Conference tagged ‘Agricultural Value Chain & Youth Development: Opportunities and Affordability’, NACOMYO emphasised the need to key into agricultural practice to explore numerous opportunities in the sector.

In a communiqué issued by the public relations officer, Opere Idris, signed by the Coordinator, Alh. Isiaka Salami, Secretary, Alh. Abd-Wahab Abd-Kareem, after the three days retreat, the group NACOMYO concluded and agreed that Muslim youth need action plan to involved in the value change of agricultural production to increase their wealth.

The group urged the youth to take full advantage of the Federal Government’s intervention plans that support agriculture to the fullest through various programme.

“NACOMYO will provide an interface session for the coordination of youth in the state with necessary tools to access Agric business in Lagos State, enjoined all the stakeholders in the Lagos state Muslim community to embrace and patronize the Islamic finance system and all the Islamic financial instruments.”

Also, the group reviewed and amended its over two decades Bye-Law to capture the present situations of the Council for Muslim youth in Lagos State.”

The guest speaker, Mr. Tunde Abdulsalam, while delivering a lecture on ‘unlocking potentials in agriculture’ said the increasing unemployment rate in Nigeria among the youth remains a challenge to social and economic stability. “And this has been attributed to insufficient basic and social infrastructure, among other factors.”

He noted that despite the introduction of several intervention programme to reduce or eradicate youth unemployment, creating jobs to reduce unemployment has been a major issue in Nigeria.

Abdulsalam noted that there are various intervention programmes made available by the government to Nigerian youth for them to harness their potentials in agribusinesses.

“We can not rule out sabotage when it comes to government agricultural interventions, but one thing that we need to guide against is skepticism. There have been various intervention initiatives in Nigeria to address youth unemployment, such as Youth Empowerment Agricultural Programme (YEAP), the FADAMA youth programme, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) and others.”