German Foundation Pledges €5 Million to Support Nigeria's Farming Sector

Oladipupo Akoni, the foundation's Chief Executive Officer and Country Representative, stated this in a statement on Monday. He was addressing at Lagos' first stakeholders roundtable.

According to Akoni, the foundation was established to assist micro and small businesses as well as the growing middle class in developing and emerging countries.

"The AFOS Foundation has made significant investments in the sector's development through capacity building, value-driven organizational development, management development, corporate governance, and product development interventions." "It is strengthening the Nigerian agricultural industry by enhancing the performance of smallholder farmers, agricultural firms, microfinance banks, and their networking across value chains in the sector."

"From the start of its agricultural project activities in Nigeria in 2017, the AFOS Foundation has touched over 45,000 smallholder farmers, with a beneficial impact on their skills, productivity, and earned incomes." "By the end of 2024, we hope to have reached 60,000 smallholder farmers," he stated. He stated that in order to build on its successes in Nigeria, programmes are now focusing on improved agricultural techniques for smallholder farmers.

"In addition, we are focused on institutionalized dual vocational training systems, value-based management training, and the construction of an agriculture training centre. They are in addition to micro-insurance product development, agricultural finance training, and microfinance sub-sector sensitization," he stated. He stated that the initiatives would be extremely beneficial to the agricultural sector of the country. "By tackling the Nigerian agriculture sector's skills and development concerns, the continuing project would have a huge impact."

"It will also handle capacity replacement," he continued, "particularly in this era of tremendous emigration." According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), the AFOS Foundation, a charitable foundation established to support micro and small businesses and the rising middle class in developing and emerging countries, is strengthening the Nigerian agricultural sector by improving the performance of small farmers, agricultural companies, microfinance banks (MfBs), and their networking across the sector's value chains.