Youth empowerment, agriculture, digital economy: The Ogun State example

About four/five years ago, Miss Lara Mafe would either be considered an unemployed or underemployed citizen of Ogun State. Yet, she had interest in agriculture just like the over 70,000 youths who applied for various agricultural opportunities on the Ogun State job portal, according to data provided by the State Ministry of Agriculture.

Her interest eventually paid off as she was selected to participate in the Ogun State Broiler Business Model. After undergoing the selection process which includes credentials review and physical interview by government representatives, Mafe was engaged alongside 54 other youths from across the three senatorial districts of the state to commence the pilot phase of the business plan at the Odeda Farm Institute, Eweje, in December 2019.

After the first cycle of the chicken production which lasted for six weeks, she realised a profit margin of N200,000 – a 566.67% more than Nigeria’s minimum wage – from which she paid N45,000 as interest on the Band of Industry (BoI) loan and other expenses.

While she recorded a loss and prolonged feed consumption time in the second cycle as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and its attendant lockdowns and restrictions on movements in the first half of 2020, Mafe was able to bounce back in profit margins in the third cycle of the project.

During each cycle of the project, Mafe just like other 53 beneficiaries who are mostly youths, reared 1,000 birds each. The skills and knowledge acquired from the programme came handy for Mafe after the completion of the project as she now raises broilers in small-scale capacity.

Another participant of the project, Mr Ekundayo Usiafo, now equally raises 100 broilers in each cycle, having realised that it is a sustainable means of steady income.

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Agribusiness for Ogun youths

To carry out this Public-Private Partnership (PPP)-based project, the state government constructed six 9,000-bird capacity poultry pens in Eweje with an output of 54,000 broiler birds per round of six weeks. The government provided 1,000 birds to each participating youth while nine of the youths were allotted to use each of the pens to rear their birds.

At inception, the government projected that the expected minimum and maximum deliverables yearly from the project is 216,000 birds (four rounds yearly) and 324,000 birds (six rounds).

Speaking on the process of selection, Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Dr Adeola Odedina, said “The list of potential beneficiaries was received, cutting across the three senatorial districts of the state, from chairmen of local governments, political office holders, youth & women empowerment groups, the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter and other youths who heard about the poultry empowerment programme.”

He added that a committee was set up to screen and select beneficiaries and they were all invited for interviews to know their competence and availability after which 60 candidates who were shortlisted were trained on broiler management, business plan and group dynamics by resource and technical persons from the ministry and Amobyn Natnudo Farms Nigeria Limited in 2018.

Under the PPP arrangement, the government provides funds for construction of poultry houses, participants of the project pay rent for the same per bird cycle while Amobyn Natnudo Farms – the end-to-end off-taker – supplies inputs and mop up the chicken after six weeks.

“The 60 beneficiaries were profiled for the Bank of Industry FarmerMoni Loan of N900,000 each, for a six-month duration with an administrative charge of 5% (N45,000). 54 beneficiaries were approved for the FarmerMoni Loan, which was disbursed in November 2019,” Dr Odedina added.

According to the ministry, the average profit made by the participants was N150,000 every 42 days. This prompted the government to expand the project to all 20 local government areas in the state.

Dr Odedina noted that: “When they commenced this project in December 2019, most of them were fresh graduates with different backgrounds. At the end of the first six weeks, they broke all available records in the reduced mortality and the feed conversion ratio to the satisfaction of the off-taker. Due to their success in the three cycles, we have on our table more than 9,000 applicants, who are mostly youths and have shown interest in becoming a part of the Ogun Broiler project.”

Job portal for youths

The project is part of the measures devised by the state government to reduce unemployment in the state. Despite being a global phenomenon, unemployment in Nigeria by Q4 2020, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), stood at 33.3 percent while underemployment was 22.6 percent. The agency also stated that youth unemployment and youth underemployment in the country stands at 42.5 percent and 21.0 percent respectively.

This, coupled with the fact that there were 207 million people as of 2022 projected to be without gainful employment globally, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), inspired Governor Dapo Abiodun implement different programmes and policies that focus more attention to the youth in the state as part of efforts to bring them out of the unemployment bracket.

The government programmes targeting the youth include the creation of a single job employment portal in August 2019 which currently has over 300 jobs being advertised on it. As of February 2021, 250,000 youths were registered on the portal.

To show its seriousness, the state government immediately employed 20 persons into the state civil service. Subsequently, 1,500 teachers each were recruited into the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) through the portal.

The office of Job Creation and Youth Empowerment in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture selected over 50,000 agricultural-oriented youths into the Anchor Borrowers schemes with a view to equip them with vocational skills and reduce thuggery, hooliganism and other social vices which is rife among youths. The programme is currently at varied stages of disbursement.

Internships

Another 5,000 unskilled youths in the state were trained, matched with and allowed to access apprenticeship in different industries across the state including construction, health, transportation while the government provided monthly allowances for them during the course of the training.

Governor Abiodun, at the launch of the Ogun State Youth Empowerment Scheme (OgunYES) in 2020, said, “This empowerment programme will accommodate 250 youths from each of our 20 Local Government Areas across our dear state,” as a boost to employment generation, poverty alleviation and food security while adding that the scheme “is a veritable approach towards placing our youth at a vantage position as proud inheritors of the future that we are building.”

At the event, he promised that the government “will continue to tap into this raw energy of our youth through different approaches to our policies and programmes.” It was no surprise when the government earmarked N6 billion for youth empowerment in the state’s 2021 appropriation bill.

To further achieve its youth empowerment drive, the government further partnered with corporate organisations in the state to carry out various empowerment programmes for its youths.

One of the partnerships catalysed the training of 600 final years students Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Federal University of Agriculture, FUNAAB, Abeokuta and Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta in the art of writing resumes, curriculum vitae, cover letters, job matching among others.

This pilot programme was done by the Ogun State Job Creation and Youth Empowerment Office in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development on GIZ Skills Development for Youths (GIZ-SKYE) as part of efforts to sharpen their skills in anticipation of their entry into the competitive labour market.

Special Assistant to Governor Abiodun on Job Creation and Youth Empowerment, Abiola Odetola, noted that the training would be extended to other institutions to equip graduates with the needed knowledge required in the labour market.

Junior Advisor for GIZ_SKYE, Godwin Obhiyeghobu, said the five-year-long project targets youths between ages 18 to 35 years under the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The government also engaged and trained 120 youths from the three senatorial districts of the state in the art of ‘Adire’ and ‘Kampala’ production and provided them with starter packs to make them self-reliant and employers of labour.

Odetola stated that his office created a WhatsApp platform to encourage, monitor and display products of beneficiaries.

“The government is ready to market all the first products produced with the starter packs given to them. We will also support you to register your business and train you on how to market your products. This empowerment is not a take and go, but a take and stay in the business,” he told them at the event.

Digital economy

Aside the job portal which serves as a repository for job placements for Ogun youths, the state also leveraged the information communication and technology (ICT) sector to provide meaningful engagements for its youths, considering the fact that ICT accounts for more than 21 per cent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to government records.

It converted one of the under-utilised buildings of the state’s model colleges into an Ogun TechHub where young people learn, incubate and ply their trade with technology in areas such as coding, animation etc. to solve commercial and social problems. It also digitally connected the age-long trade of adire which is the state’s heritage with the creation of Adire Digital Market Place which was flagged off in November 2020.

The government brought last-mile broadband access to homes, businesses and offices in the state, thereby opening up the state, its residents and their businesses digitally for global connection and expansion.

On Thursday, April 15, 2021, the state flagged off of the Ogun State Digital Economy Empowerment Project (OGDEIP) as part of efforts to digitally revolutionise the state’s economy. The infrastructure includes the laying of fibre-optic cables and mechanics across all the 20 Local Government Areas in two years and the establishment of a world class data centre among the Silicon Alley in Abeokuta to host a variety of ICT services for the public and private sectors, and cyber security scrubbing centres.

The $75 million network infrastructure being implemented by its partner, 21st Century Technologies limited (21CTL), seeks to facilitate GSM services, financial inclusion, data storage, development of innovative ideas by start-ups and universities. And according to the Vice Chairman/CEO of the company, Wale Ajisebutu, the project would grow the state’s economy by an additional $100 billion.

In his address during the launch of the project, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, noted that the digital revolution that the project will bring will be a game-changer in every aspect of the socio-economic life of the state while adding that: “Nigeria is blessed with some of the brightest and best minds in the global innovation economy and improving access to broadband provides an opportunity for them to take on their peers from across the world on a more level playing field.”

“We must press on in our quest to democratize access to the internet. We are pursuing this cause because we recognize that internet access and broadband penetration will become existential in a few short years and will determine our competitiveness in the global economy.

“Through judicious investments in the right infrastructure, Ogun State has positioned itself to become a major global site of the emergent innovation economy. I believe that bridging the digital divide in the State will also lead to improved education outcomes and provide opportunities for improved access to education across the State and at different levels starting from primary to tertiary education,” he further said.

Furthering on the state’s overall investment in the empowerment of its youths through agriculture and the digital economy, Governor Abiodun, in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune in 2020, averred that there is an obvious nexus between economic development, unemployment, illiteracy and insecurity, adding that the government saw the need introduce many initiatives to stimulate the local economy while equally empowering the teeming youth.

“We set up the Ogun State Public Works Agency to ensure that we have an agency that is able to employ our teeming youths through direct labour as against awarding third-party contracts. The Public Works Agency has since commenced work on all our township roads across the state and employed quite a number of our youths. We have also embarked on the rehabilitation of 236 schools, with one school per ward, using direct labour and engaging our youths.

“We are giving out small loans to our traders as a means of empowering them. We set up a job portal. The idea is to determine the number of underemployed and unemployed youths that we have in Ogun State. Within three weeks, that job portal recorded over 110,000 unemployed/underemployed people. We have appealed to businesses operating in the state to please post their job availabilities on the job portal, because it allows that. We are also considering passing a local content law in Ogun State that will stipulate that a certain minimum of companies’ staff must be Ogun State indigenes.

“We are also setting up skills acquisition centres across the state. The first one is the tech hub in Kobape, Abeokuta. We have teeming youths that are very ICT-savvy. We can teach them; we can empower them through these centres. We also decided to partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the Anchor Borrowers Scheme. The anchor will off-take produce from our agricpreneurs. As a state, from our job portal, we decided that we will advertise for those that want to be agricpreneurs and the responses have been very encouraging,” he said.

Speaking on how the job portal has been a great avenue to engage the youth, Abiodun said: “To date, we have harvested 10,000 people from our job portal. We have allocated a hectare of land each to them and we gave them the documents attached to the lands. The CBN has provided funding for us for land clearing. CBN will pay them stipends until the harvest. By this, we are turning these boys who are idle hands into agricpreneurs. We plan to engage another 30,000 over the next three months. Our plan is to ensure that over the next two years, we have 200,000 outgrowers in this scheme. We have found few anchors in the area of cassava and maize.”

While concerted efforts are being made by the government to gainfully engage its youthful population, some recalcitrant youths in the state still engage in thuggery, robbery, cultism and other society vices which threatens the security of the state. Most recent incidents are the cult clashes in Abeokuta and Sagamu areas of the state which led to the loss of lives.

The government has, however, launched formal investigations into those incidents with a view to understanding their remote and immediate causes. Over ten suspected cultists have been arrested by the police to forestall the breakdown of law and order. Top police henchmen were equally deployed to the areas for proper police presence and monitoring.

It will be recalled that, as part of efforts to ensure the security of lives and properties, the state government while meeting with corporate sector leaders in 2020, underscored the importance of security as a bastion for the economic prosperity of the state.

He assured the industry leaders that: “We appreciate the fact that if we want you to come here and invest, we must be able to guarantee that you are able to go about your businesses under conditions that are not threatened, and your livelihood is not threatened as well. We also appreciate the fact that those that are staying here and citizens of this state, we must ensure that they are able to go about their lives without the fear of being attacked or being kidnapped.”

Also recall that in August 2019, the government organised a fund-raising dinner for the actualisation of the Ogun State Security Trust Fund (OGSSTF) where well over N1 billion was realised for the procurement of patrol vehicles and motorcycles for the police and other sister security agencies as part of efforts to attain a crime-free Ogun State that has the potential to attract big commerce and local and foreign investors.

Since then, about 100 patrol vehicles and 200 power bikes have been purchased and distributed to the police and other sister security agencies in the state to checkmate criminal elements.

Such moves, the government believes, will ensure the safety of its people and open up the state for more industrialization and business opportunities while meaningfully engaging its youths like Mafe, Usiafo and others in such a way that discourages them to engage in cultism, thuggery, vandalism and other social vices that are rife among young people.

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