Nigeria moving forward with ILO-supported Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme

Abuja (ILO News) - The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) commended the ILO for its support to the Government of Nigeria in its effort to implement Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) in collaboration with FAO.

Challenges and opportunities in implementing YEAP were reviewed during a multi-stakeholder Joint Planning Workshop of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) held in Abuja, Nigeria on Thursday 18 February 2016. The joint program is designed to offer decent income and employment opportunities for young people through a sustainable and productive agricultural sector.

The meeting was attended by government officials and youth delegates from six pilot states of Lagos, Oyo, Imo, Rivers, Bauchi and Katsina and also had in attendance delegates from other non-pilot states. Commissioners of Agriculture from Bauchi, Imo and Katsina states were present at the meeting while the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Audu Ogbe was represented by his Personal Assistant.

Speaking at the workshop, Mrs Karima Babangida, Deputy Director, Gender and Youth Department/ National Project Coordinator of YEAP, stated that the ILO invested resources to improve the capacities of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to be able to implement the programme in Nigeria. She appealed to the ILO for more support to the Ministry to enable them deliver effective and efficient services to Nigerian youths in creating decent jobs in the rural economy.

“It was a privilege for us in FAO to work with government in supporting the implementation of YEAP. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the ILO Office in Nigeria, for collaborating with us to support and strengthen institutional capacity, both at federal and state levels, for the implementation of the programme”, the Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Ms. Louise Setshwaelo underscored highlighting the contribution of the ILO to the success of the Programme so far.

Nigerian Youths in Agriculture

According to Louise Setshwaelo, “more than 37% of youths in Nigeria are already engaged in Agriculture, with over 50% of those between 15-24 years of age, participating in various income generating activities within the sector.” She stated that youths have great potentials and “in order to harness these potentials, we must make the right investments in their skills to provide them with relevant tools, to create their own jobs and provide decent employment to others”.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, ILO and FAO collaborated in 2012 to design and implement the National YEAP to address the issues of youth unemployment, underemployment and working poverty in Nigeria.

The multi-takeholder meeting on strenghtening capacity on the implementation of YEAP afforded government and youth delegates from the respective pilot states to agree on modalities for setting up State Level Coordinating Committees for effective implementation of the YEAP.

The overall goal of YEAP is to contribute to food security and nutrition, rural income generation and improved livelihood for youth in rural areas while the specific objective of the Programme is to create decent rural employment for young women and men along area-based priority agricultural value chains. The design of the YEAP provides a framework for supporting targeted State-level investments to complement and leverage on-going programmes for youth employment in agriculture.