By Dipo Olowookere
Federal Government has approved the agripreneurs programme financed by the African Development Bank (AFDB).
The scheme is aimed at making agriculture attractive to youths and also to help Nigeria with its diversification dream.
The agripreneurs programme is designed based on the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Youth Agripreneurs model, and tagged: ‘ENABLE Youth’.
It is expected to give African youths the opportunity of tapping into the vast resources in agriculture.
Speaking on the approval by the Nigerian government, the Communications Officer at IITA Abuja office, Mr Obinna Chukwuezie, stressed that the ‘ENABLE Youth’ initiative has the potential to actively engage the youths and create gainful employment while stimulating wealth generation for African youth along the agricultural value chains.
Mr Chukwuezie said the programme was initiated in 2014 during the Youth in Agribusiness Development Initiative (YADI) conference, which took place in IITA, Ibadan, Oyo State.
He added that building on the experience of IYA, 31 African countries including Nigeria indicated interest in out-scaling the IYA model and so far, the program has been approved in DR Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, and Cameroon.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka