Faces of Nigerian Celebrities in Agribusiness Sector

Nigerian celebrities

August 11, 2018//-Much has been talked about agricbusiness in Nigeria as the future of Nigerian economy, but is faced with a lot of challenges such as Herdsmen/farmers crisis, Financing, Lack of proper information and skills which are discouraging many youths to venture into Agricbusiness vis-a-vis entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Agriculture is not just the future or alternative source of income to the nation, but for food security, income opportunities to Nigerians and Industrialisation of the nation through modern farming, processing and storage system.

However the issue of skilled labour in the Agro-Allied industry is a big factor that need to be Addressed, both government, cooperate organisation, Individuals and nongovernmental organisation need to be involved in training the needed work force which mainly are youths both in formal and informal education sector.

Cooperative collages in Nigeria need to be refashioned in line with government vision to address youth unemployment, food security and economic diversification in Nigeria into Agro -Allied sector.

The agricultural sector has been the center stage of many government developmental policies. Various programmes and projects have been introduced in Nigeria specifically to harness the viable agile workforce i.e. youth.

This is to foster economic prosperity and development through agriculture. The problem is all these programmes did very little in changing the fortune of the youth in particular and rural communities at large.

In Nigeria, the youth still remain un-attracted to agriculture they prepare Nijabet and online yahoo yahoo, thereby remain highly unemployed, as such become economically irrelevant and hence politically alienated.

The ‘appeal issue’ on agriculture, fueled by information poverty among youth about the sector seems to be some of the factors identified that triggered the dis-enchantment among youth.

Agricultural venture seems to be a last resort, whereby youth participate when that is what was presented by governments, not out of interest.

However, Nigerian celebrities venturing into Agricbusiness will bring boost into the sector because celebrity is a person who is widely recognised in a given society and commands a degree of public and media attention.

Celebrities of course enjoy a special status in the world, since we love to know about them. We like to read about the most celebrities as everyone imagines that maybe one day they can be part of their life, this imaginative streak in humans, makes them keep track of all celebrities both in the entertainment, media, sports, fashion, ICT, among others. They have thousands and millions of followers whom they can influence by their words and actions who are mostly youths.

Celebrities can engage and championed agricbusiness and share their experiences including benefits accruing to them, best practice and opportunities within the agricultural sector on social media like their Facebook fan Page, Twite,  Instergram this will go a long way Increasing  involvement of youth in agricultural activities as a result will help reduce the problems of the ageing farm population and increasing youth unemployment.

The youth are so captivated with the frenzy of Celebrities that they follow them everywhere on social media.

Meanwhile if we have the following Agro produce owned and managed by our celebrities such as Linda Ikeji  Meat Shop, Muna Rice, Davido and Chioma Home Pride Restaurant, Ini Edo Vegetable shop, 2baba Otukpo Gari, Tonto Dikeh Palm Oil, Genevieve Nnaji Organic Carrot Oil, Mercy Johnson Fruit shop, Don Jazzy   Ranch, Toolz Oniru Agricbusiness Institute, Jason Njoku Agricbusiness TV, Wizkid Grain shop; these will encourage their fans to venture into Agricultural business.

Through social media, youths both in cities and rural areas are linked to their celebrities and the world at large, so much that social media opens up a very convenient and effective medium to reach out to them. Hence it can be leveraged to disseminate important agricultural information and innovations as well as marketing outlet for their products.

These celebrities may not be involved in the real farming but into processing, packaging and marketing and can as well finance the youths and woman who they buy off the Agro Produce which they process and package, which means that they will become off takers.

Finally Government role in the area of adequate security for farmers is key in quest to boost Agro-Allied business in Nigeria.

The Agricultural clubs in the National Youth Service scheme (NYSC), should be rejuvenated and enriched by introducing NYSC farms in all states of the federation as a demonstration farms for aspiring agro-preneurs corp members, inviting guest speakers on camps and also organising workshop on agricbusiness opportunities at least quarterly every year.

Youths are the successor farming generation and therefore, the future of food security in Nigeria. The ageing smallholder farmers are less likely to adopt the new technologies needed to sustainably increase agricultural productivity.

There is therefore, a pressing need to engage the youth in ways that they can see a promising future in Agriculture as well as to influence them to pursue careers in agriculture-based industries.        

Independent.ng 

Leave a Reply

*