(Ecofin Agency) - African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to grant Nigeria $300 million to push youth into agriculture. The announcement was made by AfDB’s director for Nigeria, Ousmane Dore, during a seminary on the self-employment of youth in agriculture launched by the bank and International Institution for Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

According to Mr Dore, the funding aims to help bring up the next generation of African agri-entrepreneurs. It is one of AfDB’s major goals for agriculture in Africa. The bank plans to inject $12.5 billion in the industry over the next decade and create 1.2 million jobs by 2021, Chiji Ojukwu said.

To achieve this, AfDB will focus on gender as it intends to support 10000 enterprises, half of which will be detained by women. Ojukwu added that regarding Nigeria, one of AfBD’s major achievements will be the establishment of a stock market for agricultural commodities.

Aaron Akinocho