The Lagos State Government has disclosed plans to support 300 young agripreneurs with resources and mentorship.
This disclosure was made by the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, at a sensitisation programme for participants.
Participants are supported through the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme (LAP) and the Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES).
Olusanya said that participants would be located closer to support services and professional advice.
She said, “In a society like ours where there is so much demoralization, the people who are most impacted are the youths. According to the Book, ‘My Vision’ by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the leader of Dubai, it says: ‘When a government does not act in the right manner, demoralization sets in especially for the youth.’ When the youth is frustrated, chaos will definitely set in.
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“Under the mandate of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, after exclusive deliberations around what we need to do to make this year’s Empowerment different, we felt it imperative that we could not keep training people and pushing them out into the market to fend for themselves. We need to give them the mentorship and resources to help them stand on their own.
“Essentially, this is like a pilot Empowerment Programme for the youth in a way and manner we haven’t done before.
“The idea is, we will empower you, but we want you to be within a location where our people can provide you with the support services, professional advice, where we can bring people with technology to help you improve, make better money and increase your yield.
“We have a total of 300 participants out of which 240 is for aquaculture and 60 for poultry. Out of the 240 going for aquaculture, we will have about 80 in the facility in Araga, Epe while the remaining 160 will be at the Lagos Food Production Center, Avia, Badagry.”
