Nestlé Nigeria announced a partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Youth Agripreneurs to celebrate the 2019 International Youth Day at the IITA Conference Centre in Ibadan, Nigeria, through one of its flagship program, Nestlé Needs Youth.
Nestlé Needs Youth is one of the ways Nestlé mitigates the scourge of youth unemployment in the society and 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 company said in a written statement.
“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,” Sola Akinyosoye, Country Human Resources Manager for Nestlé Nigeria, said.
The 2019 International Youth Day celebrate drew more than 90 National Youth Service Corps members, aspiring Agripreneurs as well as budding farmers at the IITA Centre in Ibadan, where they received training on opportunities existing within the food and agriculture value chain.
Speaking 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,” he added.
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.
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