By Prisca Nguzo
The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has said it would empower 25, 500 youths and women rural farmers drawn from nine Niger Delta States in agriculture entrepreneurship.
The essence of the empowerment according to the Ministry is, among other things, to alleviate poverty, boost economy, enhance food productivity and security, increase employment opportunities in the region as well as guarantee financial sustainability of the beneficiaries.
This was disclosed to newsmen by the National Project Coordinator, Dr. Abiodun Sanni during the Technical Working Session of the Ministry on Group Savings, Loan and Record/ Bookkeeping held in Owerri, weekend.
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Sanni, represented by his Technical Assistant, Mr Bunmi Ogunleye, said the working session which falls under the 'Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Niger Delta Project' is being funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
Sanni said, "The project has participating states from Niger Delta, who will access the $60m loan funded by IFAD. The project, which has two phases of six years, has a 12-year life span with phase one of 6 years, which started in 2019.
"The six states that started in 2019 were Abia, Bayelsa, Ondo, Cross River, Edo, and Delta states. Imo, Akwa Ibom and Rivers were activated in 2024. So, the project is happening in nine states of Niger Delta.
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"The essence of the project is to empower youths and women in agriculture entrepreneurship for self-reliance and sustainability."
"The empowerment of the participating youths and women is being done across selected commodities of Cassava, Plaintain, Fish, Rice, Cocoa, Oil palm, and Poultry. The empowerment will be across the value chain which are, production, processing and building their capacity to market the products.
"The training will further strengthen and build the capacity of selected few on proper record keeping and documentation in business, with the intent that they will step down the learning and cascade the training down the others for same pack of knowledge"
"The people being trained are part of the project. To participate in the project, one must be unemployed, underemployed, and must be living in the rural communities", Sanni added.
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Also speaking, the National Financial Inclusion Specialist, Empress Obiageli Ekwelie said the project operates through the Incubator and incubatee model, adding that, "it is a process the participants learn under an expert on the commodities for a period defined by the gestation period of the commodity".
She said, "At the end of the training, they will learn to do business successfully with the startup capital, which is usually not enough. They will better appreciate the need to increase their culture of saving, be able to raise their credits rating from financial institutions and increase their ability to record the activities of their enterprises".
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