FG launches YEAP and FAFIN to aid Youth Employment

The Federal Government today unveiled the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN),at the banquet hall of the presidential villa to engage the youths of Nigeria by creating employment opportunities. President Jonathan noted that the new initiative will empower the youths to “become the CEOs of their own farms and agribusinesses, create jobs in the rural areas and reverse the trend of high rural to urban migration. They will help to change the mindset of the younger generation on agriculture”.

About 750,000 youths are expected to benefit from this project and the government has promised to create an enabling environment for them to prosper in agricultural businesses. President Jonathan noted that the programme will contribute immensely to food security and improve livelihood for the younger population.

“Focusing on programs that will engage our teeming youths in profitable and viable economic activities along the agricultural value chains, including commercial farming, processing, value addition, logistics, transport and marketing of value added agricultural products. They will not just take agriculture as a way of life, they will run agriculture as a business.

“I am confident that several young millionaires and even billionaires of Nigeria will come out of the agriculture sector. But before we can successfully attract a lot of the youth into the agriculture sector, we must replace the hoes and cutlasses with modern farm machinery. Agriculture should not be synonymous with hard labour or rural life,” the President said.

Popular artiste, D'banj was on hand to entertain the audience.