The Federal Government’s recent announcement that it would create 5 million jobs in agriculture to be funded with a $1.1 billion loan from Brazil appears to be the newest in a growing list of political games to bait hopeful, unemployed young Nigerians.
Now 18 months since July 2017, the Federal Government has kept the dreams of 5,916 young Nigerians hanging on what may now be another white elephant scheme. The entrepreneurs were meant to be beneficiaries of the FADAMA Graduate Unemployed Youth and Women Support (FADAMA GUYS), an initiative of the FGN-World Bank FADAMA Additional Financing III. Each one of the entrepreneurs was supposed to get between N1.8 million and N1.9 million as grant, and the World Bank reportedly backed this project with about N9 billion.
As earlier reported by BusinessDay, many of these now-disappointed beneficiaries say the fund has been released to the Ministry of Agriculture, where disbursement was meant to be done. However, till date, the beneficiaries are clueless as to what has caused the delay. Some have even suggested that certain individuals may be reaping interests from the funds, which should have been disbursed.
When BusinessDay reached out to the World Bank office in Nigeria, the response suggested that certain funds have already been made available to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, although the sum was not explicitly stated. What was clearly stated, however, was that disbursement is “expected to start soon”, just as promised every month since July 2017.
“We have been informed that disbursement of funds to affected persons should commence at the first quarter of 2019,” Adetunji Oredipe, task team leader, FADAMA Project, said in an emailed response to BusinessDay.
The Ministry of Agriculture, which is meant to disburse the funds, has so far been unable to account for the FADAMA grants meant for almost 6,000 agropreneurs. Analysts doubt that the same Federal Government that has found it difficult to disburse approximately N11 billion, out of which the World Bank has reportedly committed N9 billion, will be able to create 5 million jobs based on another $1.1 billion (N396 billion) loan.
For the analysts, the government’s declaration that it would create 5 million jobs in the agric sector is aimed to garner political goodwill and nothing more.
While launching the “Green Imperatives”, an agricultural initiative, last week, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had said, “We cannot bring our nation out of poverty without investment in agriculture. Also, the sheer number of young people coming of age will not only need to be fed but employed. They want dignified jobs with decent pay.”
Ironically, part of the conditions for the 5,916 expectant FADAMA agropreneurs was to stay in agriculture and not take up any other employment for three years. These young Nigerians, on account of their ‘contract’ with government, cannot take up employment yet and are also unable to receive the grants meant for them to go into commercial agriculture.
In Taraba State, Bala Ahmed (not real name) told BusinessDay he leased 1.5 hectares of land for a period of three years to cultivate tuber crops, precisely yam and cassava. Even after submitting his business plan, which has since been verified by FADAMA staff, he has been unable to cultivate anything due to lack of funds.
In an interview, Ahmed said he was surfing the internet in search of job opportunities when he came across the FADAMA advert calling for applications to the programme. Since then, he has neither got a job nor the grant promised even after his investments and commitments towards it.
“I have invested a lot of time and money and remained unemployed, while expecting a grant to become an agropreneur,” he said. He expressed hope that “the federal government of Nigeria has not scammed” the prospective beneficiaries, claiming a huge percentage, if not all of the fund, was released by the World Bank and the government has refused to disburse it.
Yomi Alade (not real name) from Ondo State graduated from the Kaduna Polytechnic with a HND in Business Administration. In 2017, he heard of the FADAMA programme and, according to him, applied online on April 15, 2017. He attended a two-week training session in July at the Federal University of Technology, Akure along with 297 hopeful young Nigerians. However, as at the time of the last revalidation exercise in November 2018, only 260 showed up. According to him, some of his friends quit their previous jobs to enrol in the FADAMA programme in the belief that it was going to secure their future as entrepreneurs who could also create jobs.
After submitting his business plan, which he said was subsequently ‘standardised’, he was approved for the N1.8 million grant.
“We don’t have farmers in our family, but I ventured into it due to the opportunities in agriculture,” Alade said.
He also revealed that after the last revalidation exercise of November 9, 2018, some of his colleagues were no longer active.
“Some exited the programme due to other opportunities they found, failure from FADAMA to disburse, and some are dead,” he said.
CALEB OJEWALE
