Ecobank Nigeria Limited has partnered with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to train and provide support services to 16,000 Nigerian youths within the ages of 18 and 40 on poultry, aquaculture, horticulture, and value addition. Ecobank’s Head of Public Sector and Agric Business, Ayo Osolake, said the training is designed for both digital and physical audiences and structured into phases, and that the first phase would strictly be online while the second phase would be hybrid, entailing practical sessions and farm visits. She stated that Ecobank, “as a Pan-African institution, it is important for us to continue to sow the seeds of growth in the communities where we operate, especially among young people, who are the future of our nation and in real economy-impacting sectors like agriculture.
“This is at the heart of our partnership with IITA, where we are combining the full scale of our expertise to empower and equip young Nigerians with the prerequisite knowledge for success in agriculture. Our commitment to helping young people create wealth is unwavering, and we are keen on working with similar-minded stakeholders in other sectors to help nurture the dreams of our youths. The programme was designed with a view to expanding the frontiers of agricultural opportunities for Nigerians, especially in terms of research, development and wealth creation. Now, is a great time for anyone considering a future in agriculture to be a part of this training”, she noted.
She disclosed further that the training would also cover both theoretical and practical aspects of everything they need to learn and “It is a pleasure to work with a foremost institution like the IITA for this, seeing that we share similar values”, she stated. Osolake also said that the training would offer an opportunity to learn new technologies along the focus value chain, build business skills and competencies in agribusiness management, mentoring, and coaching opportunities, linkages to finance, exposure to business plan development, and loan application, adding that there would also be post-training support, to improve start-up identity and market linkages.
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