Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has said that the state government has concluded plans for a partnership with MasterCard to float agricultural projects that will employ no fewer than three million youths in the next few months. 

Governor El-Rufai, who spoke in Kaduna at the 30th anniversary of the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN), said agriculture remains the best means of getting millions of youths in the country employed.

He was represented on the occasion by the Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhaji Ibrahim Hussain, who said the government was also setting aside a lot of land for agriculture, which would be allocated to the youths.

The governor commended the maize association and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for choosing Kaduna to unveil the maize pyramid, which is set for commissioning by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday.

He said: “We have a lot of graduates that have not been employed and there is potential for them to be employed in agriculture. The government of Kaduna State is setting aside a lot of land for agriculture and is going to be actually allocated to the youths.

“We are in partnership with many firms locally and internationally and we are involved in implementing a number of projects, national and international.

“There is one particular project with MasterCard that we are targeting about three million jobs in the project alone. We are targeting about three million youths and we hope in the next couple of months, the project will be on and running,” El-Rufai.

Earlier, the President of the Maize Association of Nigeria, Dr. Bello Annur, said at 30, the association was redirecting the focus of the maize farmers and introducing modern farming methods and technologies to the farmers.