The Nigerian Agribusiness Group (NABG), Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) and other major stakeholders in the sector have expressed their desire to partner with the Premier Agribusiness Academy in deepening the capacity of agripreneurs to grow sustainable agribusinesses.
This was made known recently at the just concluded leadership training organised by Premier Agribusiness Academy in Lagos.
Manzo Daniel Maigari, director-general, NABG, who was a participant at the executive programme of the institute said that the sector is not well structured and agripreneurs will require efficient leaderships training like the ones organised by the academy to make critical investment decisions that will help to scale their businesses.
Maigari applauded the quality of training and facilitators at the Premier Agribusiness Academy.
“I do not think there is any other academy providing top-level management training like this in the sector. Premier Agribusiness Academy has come in handy to fill a gap that no one has been able to identify let alone meet,” he said in a statement made available to BusinessDay.
“The academy has created a niche for itself that nobody may be able to compete with both in terms of the quality of training and the trainer. The founder, Toromade Francis is a renowned and one of the best agribusiness experts in Nigeria,” he added.
Another participant at the training, Veronica Obatolu, executive director, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) commended the academy and highlighted ways the research institute can collaborate with the school while expressing the desire to do so.
“There are so many ways our organisation can collaborate with Premier Agribusiness Academy especially in the area of value chain development,” Obatolu said.
Read also: Prospects, challenges of Nigerias agriculture in 2020
“Our institute conducts research on various agricultural crops so there are so many ways we can collaborate in the area of livestock, processing and capacity development for farmers,” she noted.
Explaining the importance of the training programme, she noted that the training had provided her with a new perception regarding decision making, adding that both critical and creative thinking are to be applied to make good business decisions.
Similarly, Egbebe Godwin, chairman, PAN, Lagos State chapter who was also a participant said he is delighted to have attended because it has helped in bridging the gap between agriculture and business to ensure the successful practices of agribusiness.
“A lot of people do not know how to bring the concept of science and business together. They only know agriculture but there are ignorant of the business aspect of it,” he said.
Olufemi Oladunni of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), revealed that functioning efficiently as a chief executive requires a lot of creative and critical thinking to solve problems especially in agriculture and rural development sector of the Nigerian economy.
He expressed his intention to collaborate with the academy by introducing agribusiness components into the agricultural value chain, through the training of young members in experiential learning adding that, this knowledge will help them in delivering their mandate to the institute and country at large.
On his part, Humphrey Akanazu, country director, Rome Business School, the knowledge impacted in Premier Agribusiness Academy training are skills that can be applied in any business environment not only agriculture.
Premier Agribusiness Academy is a school designed to bridge the gap between agriculture and business management in the Nigerian agricultural sector through quality training on human capital development, business management, marketing and sales of agricultural products, production, logistics, distribution among others.
Speaking on the upcoming training theme, Francis Toromade, director-general of the academy, said that creative thinking and problem-solving skills for decision making is a course that is transforming agribusinesses in the country.
“The purpose of the course is to help participants develop their creative thinking ability and use it as a tool to effectively make excellent business and organizational decisions,” Toromade said.
Registration for another training session which is scheduled to hold 16th January 2020 in Ikeja, at Lagos Sheraton Hotels is ongoing.
Josephine Okojie
