Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Nigeria’s former minister of Agriculture, will visit the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Nigeria (Abuja Station) on Tuesday, 27 September, to show support to African youth engaged in the ‘Jobs for Youth in Africa’ initiative of the AfDB.
The program aims to put an end to youth unemployment in the continent and in collaboration with IITA—would be scaling out the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA) model of youth engagement in agribusiness to create over 8 million agribusiness jobs within 5 years for youth under an AfDB-funded program called Empowering Novel Agribusiness-Led Employment for Youth in African Agriculture (ENABLE Youth).
Dr Adesina will meet the IYA representatives from the different chapters in Nigeria and will inspect the construction of the Agripreneurs’ training center in the station that was funded by the project.
“The Agripreneurs training center is only one of the many contributions and invaluable support of Dr Adesina to IYA,” explains IITA’s Director General Nteranya Sanginga. “The facility will be commissioned and named the A.A. Adesina Youth Training Center in July 2017 during IITA’s 50th anniversary celebration.”
Dr Adesina has pumped support for the cause of the African youth through mentoring, incubation, and other ways. In appreciation of his continuous support and deep commitment to the cause of the youth, IITA and the future billionaires of Africa–the youth, led by the IITA Youth Agripreneurs, will be preserving Dr Adesina’s legacy by naming the state-of-the-art youth training center at IITA headquarters in Ibadan and in Abuja, Nigeria, after him.
Through the ENABLE Youth program, over $1 billion would be used to support agribusiness enterprises and jobs for young women and men who have embraced agriculture as a business and an income-generating avenue. This is intended to encourage the millions of unemployed African youth to go into agriculture and make it the next driving force for development in Africa.
Upon assumption of office on 1 September 2015, the AfDB President rolled out his five development priorities for the institution which focused on transforming the lives of African people and contributing to the economic development and social progress of African countries.
One of these priorities is the ‘Feed Africa’ initiative which is an agricultural transformation strategy that aims to unlock Africa’s agricultural potential and boost job creation with the view of making the agriculture sector profitable and a starting point for industrialization.
With the ‘Feed Africa’ strategy, Africa would be able to feed itself and reduce net food importation by 2025. Dr Adesina believes in Africa and feels that “There is absolutely no reason why Africa is a net food-importing region, spending over $35 billion importing food. Africa must feed itself – and Africa must become a global powerhouse in food and agriculture.”
He also believes that the African youth are tomorrow’s key drivers of development that governments must fully engage to maximize the economic potential of Africa.
For more information please contact:
Katherine Lopez, Head of Communication, IITA HQ, K.Lopez@cgiar.org
About IITA www.iita.org
IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research-for-development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a non-profit organization founded in 1967 in Nigeria and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. It is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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