Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme launches with youth-led priority setting in Abuja

Young agripreneurs, government representatives, private-sector leaders and development partners met in Abuja on October 7 and 8 for the first activity of the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme in Nigeria. The two-day convening brought together 150 participants, including 100 young people, to introduce the programme and set its early priorities. Young agripreneurs, innovators and youth leaders led the first day, setting out the barriers and opportunities they face in their own words. On the second day, they presented their priorities and expectations to government, financiers and development partners as the Honourable Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Dr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, CON, officially launched the programme.

YEFFA is a six-year, Pan-African partnership between the Mastercard Foundation and AGRA that is active in 8 countries. It aims to help young people, particularly young women, access dignified and fulfilling work in agrifood systems. In Nigeria, the programme will work in the Federal Capital Territory and Niger, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Ogun and Oyo states, across the maize, rice, soybean, horticulture and aquaculture value chains. It aims to support 143,000 young people into dignified and fulfilling work, 70 per cent of them young women.

Using live digital polling, youth participants named the barriers holding back their agribusinesses and the investments that would make the biggest difference. Asked in one word to name the biggest barrier, participants overwhelmingly answered finance. Access to finance was also their top investment priority, chosen by 44 per cent of respondents, followed by youth leadership and inclusion (20 per cent) and technology and innovation (17 percent). When asked to rank interventions, they placed mentorship and coaching first, ahead of affordable financing and practical skills training. Participants also called for a greater role for young people in the decisions that shape the sector.

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“After several months of hard work, thinking and strategising, we have a unique programme that is designed by the youth, for the youth, and that makes sure young people also drive its implementation,” said Dr Rufus Idris, Country Director, AGRA Nigeria. “YEFFA

 will not only impact its direct participants and partners. Young people across the country, whether they are part of the program or not, should feel the systemic change it is meant to bring.” 

Wambui Chege, Director of Agrifood Systems for Pan-African Programmes at the Mastercard Foundation, said the partnership with AGRA, which began in 2023, has already been put into action in several countries, and that Nigeria, the latest country to join, benefits from the lessons learned elsewhere.

“Young people are already contributing to production, processing, technology, logistics, marketing and community leadership. However, our ability to establish and scale sustainable businesses depends on access to finance, practical skills, infrastructure, reliable markets and meaningful influence over the programmes intended to support us. As we always say, nothing for us without us,” said Baliqees Salaudeen, 28, agripreneur and Regional Coordinator, African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC).

Presenting the youth perspectives at the launch, Salaudeen set out what young people expect from YEFFA: a youth advisory mechanism with regular access to programme decision-makers; finance that is easier to access, with simpler applications and lower collateral demands, paired with business support; stronger links to buyers, processors and aggregators; deliberate inclusion of young women, persons with disabilities and displaced youth; affordable digital tools; and transparent, accountable delivery.

Partners responded with commitments. Ayodeji Oludare Sotinrin, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Agriculture, said the bank financed more than 500,000 farmers last year and pledged to work with AGRA and the Mastercard Foundation on a dedicated financing mechanism for YEFFA participants. Rosy Fynn, Country Director – Nigeria, Mastercard Foundation, said the program was designed around the barriers young people had named, from access to finance and markets to post-harvest losses, and that its success depends on every partner sharing responsibility.

Delivering the keynote address, Senator Dr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi urged young people to treat agriculture as a full-time business, invest in practical skills and choose mentors with proven results on the farm. He noted that agricultural training curricula are now required to be 70 percent practical, and pointed to opportunities beyond production, from cocoa and mushrooms to processing and export.

Over the two days, participants explored practical solutions, including agribusiness incubation, youth-responsive financing, mentorship and digital agriculture tools. Young entrepreneurs called for shared, certified post-harvest and aggregation hubs; patient, youth-sensitive finance and agricultural insurance that protects young people’s investments; and integrated farm, market and financial data to reduce risk for lenders and insurers.

The outcomes, commitments, and recommendations gathered from the convening will directly inform YEFFA’s operational roadmap, partner consortium frameworks, and rollout activities across Nigeria.