The Federal Government through the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS) will soon create at least 360,000 jobs for young Nigerians. The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CB), Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the stakeholders’ meeting on the operational framework for the Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS).
Emefiele said AADS was targeted primarily at unemployed youths between the ages of 18 and 35 years. He added that the scheme would create jobs for a minimum of 10,000 youths in each of the 36 states willing to engage in sustainable and profitable activities along the agricultural value chain.
While acknowledging the twin-challenge of youth restiveness and unemployment, he stressed the need for stakeholders to confront the challenge with innovative thinking, using agriculture as a fulcrum of a long-term sustainable and profitable approach.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, lauded the courage of the CBN governor and his team in introducing the policy on the restriction of access to foreign exchange from the Nigerian Forex market for some 41 items which can be produced in Nigeria.
In his remarks, the Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, who doubles as the Head, Technical Sub-committee of AADS and Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Rice and Wheat, appealed to Nigerians to support the AADS, noting that even industrialized nations had to protect their agricultural production through tariffs and trade policy especially in areas the country has comparative advantage.
Bagudu said 23,000 farmers were currently engaged in intensive farming, especially on rice and wheat with investment worth N1.2tn.
