Follow Us on Google
From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Ogun Government has facilitated a business meeting between 100 agriculture entrepreneurs and financial institutions, investors, government intervention funds and agribusiness operators, in order to position them to access necessary funding to scale up their businesses.
Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Agriculture, Angel Adelaja-Kuye, who made this known while declaring open a four-day workshop with the theme: ‘Ogun State Access to Agricultural Finance’, in Abeokuta, disclosed the beneficiaries were selected from Ogun Job Portal as part of Abiodun-led administration’s efforts to reduce unemployment in the state.
She said the state government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has partnered the financial institutions to train 100 women and youths to ensure they have access to all forms of funding, including loans, grants and investment funds to boost their agric businesses.
Adelaja-Kuye said at the end of the training, trainees would have access to funds needed to thrive, scale, and become employers of labour, noting that
“This is just a pilot, this is the first one we will be doing on this programme and is going to be a regular activity. The success of these youths is going to actually show to other youths on how much opportunities are in accessing agricultural finances, and we hope 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 said.
She said the initiative behind the programme was to boost agricultural productivity, agribusiness capacity and the entire Gross Domestic Product of the state.
