Nestlé partners IITA to provide Youth Agripreneurs with access to opportunities

Through the ‘Nestlé Needs Youth’ initiative, Nestlé Nigeria in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is charting a course to support young agripreneurs in identifying viable opportunities in the agriculture value chain.

Celebrating with some young Agripreneurs at the 2019 International Youth Day at the IITA Conference Centre in Ibadan recently, the event hosted over 90 National Youth Service Coppers, aspiring Agripreneurs and budding farmers at the IITA Centre. The program featured knowledge sharing on opportunities that exist within the food and agriculture value chain.

Nestlé Needs Youth according to a statement by the company is one of the ways Nestlé mitigates the scourge of youth unemployment in the society. The initiative is focused on several programmes and campaigns to boost entrepreneurship and employability among the youth through career fairs and skills training to equip young people to find decent employment or profitable entrepreneurship.

Sola Akinyosoye, country human resources manager at Nestlé Nigeria, stated that celebrating the 2019 International Youth Day is an opportunity to draw the attention of youths to available opportunities in agriculture. Through the ‘Nestlé Needs Youth’ initiative, there is a focus on the creation of job opportunities and empowerment for the youth. “We do this around three pillars; one of them is employment and employability. We ensure that we train, equip and give support for young Nigerians so they can be self-employed and get employment with us or other companies,” Akinyosoye said.

Also speaking at the event Fredrick Schreurs, the chief executive officer, Business Incubation Platform, IITA, said that youth engagement would pave the way for sustainable growth in the agriculture sector.

According to him, technology coming from IITA is taken and disseminated to the markets and through this, create jobs for youth Agripreneurs. IITA, he said, is a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, they improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity.

 

CALEB OJEWALE