Nestlé Nigeria through its initiative, Nestle Needs Youth, in partnership with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, (IITA) Youth Agripreneurs, celebrated the 2019 International Youth Day at the IITA Conference Centre in Ibadan, Nigeria.
In line with the 2019 theme “Transforming Education”, the event hosted over 90 National Youth Service Corpers, aspiring Agripreneurs and budding farmers at the IITA Centre in Ibadan.
The program shared knowledge on the opportunities that exist within the food and agriculture value chain.
The Nestlé Needs Youth is one of the ways Nestlé mitigates the scourge of youth unemployment in the society.
The initiative is focused on several programmes and campaigns to boost entrepreneurship and employability among the youth through career fairs and skills training to equip young people to find decent employment or profitable entrepreneurship.
The Country Human Resources Manager Nestlé Nigeria, Mr Sola Akinyosoye, stated that celebrating the 2019 International Youth Day was an opportunity to draw the attention of youths to available opportunities in agriculture.
Through the ‘Nestlé Needs Youth’ initiative, there is a focus on the creation of job opportunities and empowerment for the youth.
“We do this around three pillars; one of them is employment and employability. We ensure that we train, equip and give support for young Nigerians so they can be self-employed and get employment with us or other companies,” Akinyosoye said.
Commenting at the event, the Chief Executive Officer, Business Incubation Platform, IITA, Dr Fredrick Schreurs, said that youth engagement would pave way for sustainable growth in the agriculture sector.
“We take technology coming from IITA and disseminate them to the markets; in line with this, we create jobs for youth Agripreneurs.
“IITA is a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation.
“Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, they improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity”, he added.
SOURCE: TRIBUNE
