The Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), on Monday signed a three-year agreement with three global institutions which are International Funf for Agriculture Development (IFAD), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and AfricaRise, to train one thousand youths in various agricultural techniques.
This was disclosed during the unveiling of the partnership with ABUAD at the IFAD Project Inception workshop tagged: “Youth empowerment in agribusiness and sustainable agriculture” in Ado-Ekiti.
It was revealed by an IFAD Technical Specialist and leader of the team, Dr. Malu Muia Ndavi.
The team of experts from the partnering agencies stated that the essence of the programme is to tackle youth employment in Nigeria and encourage youth population to perceive farming as a profitable business.
They said that the agencies wanted to partner ABUAD because of the institution’s deep concern for job-creation in Nigeria and Africa, having realised that youth empowerment is Africa’s major challenge.
The founder of ABUAD, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), spoke about the high propensities for white collar jobs among youths.
“The mentality of an avaerage Nigerian was that, only white collar jobs were good. When white men introduced civil service, the civil servants then lived like gods, so were trained wrongly. They never emphasised that farming was a goof profession.
“But, somebody must correct this wrong impression, IFAD, ABUAD must be ready to do this. We must research and bring new innovations to agriculture and modernise farming,” Babalola stated.
Funmilola Bolaji is a Researcher, Writer and a trained Educationist; she’s the editor of Campusbiz Journal. You may want to reach her via for Campusbiz Journal related inquiries only.
