By Felicia Imohimi
Leventis Foundation Nigeria, says it is partnering with development banks, financial institutions, and private investors to design innovative mechanisms that can help young farmers start, scale, and sustain their agribusinesses.
Alhaji Ahmed Mantey, Chairman of the foundation, who said this on the sideline of the 2025 Agricultural Youth Summit on Friday in Abuja, identified access to finance as a major challenge for young agri-preneurs,
The summit was organised by the foundation in collaboration with National Youth Service Corps(NYSC).
It had as its theme, “Building Youth and Agripreneurs’ Resilience for Agribusiness Through Targeted Up-scaling and Innovative Agri-Finance Mechanisms,”
Mantey emphasised that creating an enabling environment where finance, technology, and policy support converged was crucial to driving youth-led agricultural transformation
The chairman said there was the need for continued investment in Nigeria’s youth, describing them as the nation’s greatest assets and most renewable resource.
According to him, the vibrancy, creativity, and resilience of Nigerian youth are unmatched. If properly harnessed, they hold the key to achieving not only food security but also national prosperity.
He says “Leventis foundation believes in targeted up-skilling equipping youths not only with practical farm skills, but also with entrepreneurial and managerial competencies that make them competitive favourably in today’s economy.
“We are deliberate about this, as we have just signed an MoU with the Abuja Enterprise Agency to provide effective business development services to our agricultural trainees and alumni,” he said.
Mantey said that the foundation hadempowered over 31,000 youths and farmers on modern agricultural entrepreneurship skills in across its training schools in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Osun and Imo.
The chairman said the gesture was geared towards ensuring food sufficiency in the country.
He said through the entrepreneurial skills many of the beneficiaries were now employers of labour, business owners, and key contributors to food security across the country and beyond.
He identified the summit as a reflection of shared commitment to one of empowering Nigerian youth through sustainable agriculture and agribusiness development.being the most pressing challenges confronting the country.
“The theme encapsulates what we must do to equip our young people not just with skills, but with resilience, creativity, and access to resources that will enable them to thrive in a rapidly changing agricultural landscape.
“This summit stands as a beacon of the foundation belief by providing a platform for dialogue, innovation, and policy alignment that can unlock the potential of Nigeria’s agribusiness ecosystem.
“Building resilience means empowering young people to adapt, innovate, and persevere — to see beyond obstacles and seize the opportunities that agribusiness offers.
“This summit underscores the power of partnership between the public and private sectors, academia and industry, and institutions he added.
Dr Hope Usieta, Executive Director of the foundation, said the organisation continued to train youths across Nigeria in various aspects of agriculture and agribusiness through its six training centres.
He, however, identified access to agri-finance for smallholder farmers and their preparedness to manage such funding effectively as a major challenge in spite of the organisation’s interventions.
According to him, there is still a critical need to advance solutions that address limited access to finance and strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers to utilise agri-finance efficiently.
Dr Abe Dankaro, Director of Ventures Management at NYSC, who represented the Director-General NYSC, noted that Nigeria, was faced with dual challenge of high youth unemployment and growing concerns over food security like every other country.
According to him, in every challenge lies an opportunity and that opportunity is agribusiness — a sector rich in potential but in need of young minds to drive its transformation.
He described the Leventis Foundation Nigeria as a visionary institution with a long-standing legacy in agricultural education and youth empowerment.
“Since the signing of the MoU between the NYSC and Leventis Foundation Nigeria in 2021, the partnership has blossomed into one of the most impactful collaborations under the NYSC’s Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Programme.
“Through this partnership, corps members have been exposed to modern agricultural training, internships, and agribusiness development programmes at the foundation’s renowned agricultural schools across the country,’he said. (NAN)