By Valentine Oforo, Dodoma
THE ambitious International youth empowerment project has extended its services footholds in Dodoma region, target to assist over 4,500 youths in the fast-growing region to professionally venture onto diverse agribusiness endeavors
The focus, among others, is to impart the intended youths with vital technical skills on poultry projects handling, as well as additional value towards numerous agricultural produce.
Dubbed ‘Empowering Novel Agri-business –Led Employment (ENABLE), the robust project is the component of the Technologies for African Agricultural Technologies (TAAT) program, the strategic initiative funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) being implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
So far, the ENABLE project has entered into a working contract with the Dodoma-based TUSUMUKE Youth Entrepreneurship Group (TYEG) for the effective execution of the timely-project among the youths within different wards and districts of Dodoma region.
Giving an exclusive interview to this publication, Mr Augustine Deogratius, the Assistant ENABLE-TAAT Liaison Officer Tanzania expressed that the initiative was working to practically train the youths on useful technical skills pertaining to poultry, as well as additional value to numerous agro produce.
“The project attracts both the youth groups as well as the individuals starting from 18 and 35 years of age. However, we’re sensitizing them to form special working groups so that they can stand a better chance to acquire useful capital loans from various financial institutions,” he unveiled.
And according to Mr Deogratius, the NMB Bank Plc is part and parcel in the rolling out of the project, noting that the role of the state-owned commercial bank was to impart the beneficiary youths with key financial skills and other relevant awareness.
He informed that the project was also being implemented in nearly all zones across the country, working to technically assist the youths to take part and benefiting accordingly from the various agro opportunities which are niches in their respective areas.
“The obejetive of the program incorporates a need to provide technical support to stakeholders involved in the program implementation using the IITA Youth –in Agriculture model,” he added.
As part of envisaged plans in the project implementation in Dodoma region, he unveiled that the vision was to set up a major incubator center, the vital facility which will be grilling the youths in the region with needed technical skills on the project’s selected areas.
“We’re also dealing with the students from universities and the other middle colleges and since the inception of the initiative in Dodoma region we’re kept on receiving a good number of the youths, the response is encouraging to a great extent,” he added.
Speaking for his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the TUSUMUKE Youth Entrepreneurship Group (TYEG), Mr Christopher Dioniz said they have already trained a good number of the beneficiary youth in several wards.
The areas include Nzuguni , Ndachi, Miyuji, and Mkonze wards, whereby the youths in Kongwa, Dodoma City and Kondoa Districts are similarly set to benefit in a near future.
“We are training them on proper ways for the development of local-made, but improved chicken cages, production of feeds, hatching as well as linking them to the profitable markets,” Mr Dioniz expounded.
Since 2012 IITA has been implementing a youth in agribusiness program (Youth Agripreneur) that runs its activities in different countries within Sub- Saharan Africa, including the IITA’s Agriculture-Tanzania Youth Agriculture (TYA).
Tanzania Youth Agripreneurs (TYA) combines professional graduate’s youth from different fields and disadvantaged youth aged between 18-35 years.
TYA started its chapter in March 2014 with the prime focus on getting youth together to set-up and run successful agriculture business (agribusiness) and become job creators rather than job seekers.
Throughout the initiative, more than 2000 youth and farmers in the country have so far been trained and reach out on different commodities value chain, whereby through close and successful collaboration with NMB Foundation, the program has trained youth and women/farmers on financial management to qualify them for agribusiness loans in Kinondoni Municipal.
Moreover, capacity building on different commodities including, poultry production (and other value chain), cassava production and processing (value addition), maize production, Orange fleshed Sweet Potatoes (OFSP), production of organic fertilizer have been conducted for youth in Dar es Salaam (Kinondoni Municipal and Ubungo Municipal), Morogoro region, Dodoma, Mbeya and Costal region.
The overall purpose of the ENABLE –TAAT is to radically transform African agriculture through technical assistance in the promotion of TAAT’s key agriculture technologies, operate technology and innovation centres for youths along TAAT’s commodity value chains, and stimulate youth-led agribusiness start-ups with ripple effects on job creation across sub-Saharan Africa.
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