Ogun connects women, youth led agribusinesses with funding opportunities


Part of efforts to improve ease of doing business, especially among women and youth led  agribusinesses, the Ogun state government has facilitated a business meeting between financial institutions, investor and government intervention funds and agribusiness operators in order to position them  to access necessary funding to scale their business. 
The Senior Special  Assistant to the state governor on agriculture, Dr. Angel Adelaja-Kuye while speaking during the 4-Day workshop held in Abeokuta revealed that the beneficiaries were picked from the Ogun Job portal as part of the current administration's efforts to reduce unemployment.
She said that the Ogun state government through the ministry of Agriculture partnered with Financial institutions to train 100 women and youths in order to ensure they have access to all forms of funding, including loans, grants and investment funds to boost their agric businesses.

Adelaja-Kuye added that the outcome of this training is to make sure these women and youth led agribusinesses have the funds needed to thrive,  scale, and become employers of labor, saying that Governor Abiodun is working to empower youths in various sectors of the State economy, with agriculture as a main driver of job creation.

She said ''today we are training hundred individuals , this training is an empowerment itself because after the 4 -day training, they will have Enterprise Development certificates, which is needed to get access to a variety of funds, including the SME survival fund, AgSMEs, BoI funds as well as others.  It shows financiers that these agribusinesses have gone through rigorous training on leadership development, business plan writing, business and financial  management on how to manage  their business efficiently and they are more likely to get  funds from financial institutions.



''The individuals were picked through the Ogun job Portal, so it is open to any youths in the state who want to apply. It sent information to all youths group, women groups. It also sent to local governments as well and we have youths across the state representing each  senotarial districts are here today to take part in the programme



"This is just a pilot, this is the first one we will be doing on this programme and is going to be regular activity, where we will continue to link them to this funding, the success of these youths is going to actually show to other youths on how much opportunities are in accessing agricultural finance and we hope that even without this programme these youths can be a testament to how to effectively access Agriculture finance so that the young people around them can key in as well with or without the  training. After all, how often do they have the opportunity to sit with heads of agribusiness for various banks?'' She concluded.



She said that the  initiative behind the programme was to boost agricultural productivity, Agribusiness capacity and the entire gross domestic product, GDP.



Meanwhile, one of the the participants who is an agriculturist identified as Adewuyi David appreciated the state government for organizing the programme, saying that it was a fantastic one.



He sad that the initiative will help to expand his agric business when he has access to funding.



Adewuyi said that he believed strongly that after the workshop they will have access to funds  from financial institutions.

Also another participants identified as Tope Babalola said that the training was meant to teach them on how to get access to finance, appreciating the state government for the initiative, saying that lack of funds was one of the problems of the youths to boost business, saying that with this programme, he is quite sure they will get the right type of funds to expand his business.

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