In recent decades, Nigeria has become a net importer of agricultural products through severe neglect of the agricultural sector. This is accompanied – in parallel to the rapidly growing population – by high youth unemployment and a lack of prospects, especially in rural areas, and continues to result in a pronounced rural exodus.
Launched in 2017, the AFOS Agriculture Project (AGRAR) aims to improve the socio-economic situation of low-income families and the performance of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in rural Nigeria, thereby making a positive contribution to national food security and sustainable job and income generation.
Our approach aims to increase local value through the implementation of capacity development programmes in the agricultural and microfinance sectors. Working closely with livestock and crop enterprises, we have already initiated a number of development training programmes in Nigeria as part of the strategy to strengthen agribusiness and ensure sustainability and steady growth of the sector.
Now the aim is to increase the efficiency of local agricultural value chains, food production and processing industries, and improve the performance and reach of the microfinance sub-sector. This will lead to differentiated products that better meet the needs of rural micro and small enterprises. This, in turn, will entail increased lending to enterprises and thus enable greater efficiency gains to be passed on to clients.
How do we intend to achieve our goals?
- We promote technology-based agriculture for young entrepreneurs
- We strengthen the organisational development of our partners by contributing to the capacity development of middle management in growing microfinance and agricultural enterprises.
- We develop new dual vocational training systems in the agricultural sector
- We train managers in soft skills and provide technical assistance to strengthen management in the agricultural industry
- We develop new products and conduct the resulting training and awareness raising for the microfinance sector
- By providing training and technical assistance, we aim to accelerate lending for agricultural purposes
- We advise and strengthen our project partners at all levels, including regulation, strategy, networking and operations (distribution?) to ensure the economic sustainability of the partner institutions
