By Patricia Amogu

Tremma Agro Services, an agro-ecosystem firm in Africa, is poised to inaugurate an “incubator hub” in Nigeria, a project designed for agro-entrepreneurs and viable innovators ready to kick start businesses.

The agro-ecosystem is aimed at supporting the food production systems in farms and gardens.

Dr Emmanuel Abuhson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation disclosed this at a media parley in Abuja on Thursday.

Abuhson told journalists that the inauguration of the programme is scheduled to hold in September and will develop and build up practical skills, and nurture entrepreneurial ideas among young people.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the main objective of the project is to nurture, equip, and support agro-entrepreneurs as well as strengthen youth participation in agriculture.

The project is also aimed at making Africa a hub for agro-business to thrive.

“Less than five per cent of investments in Africa go to agriculture due to the risk factors in the business.

“Agriculture should be youth-driven to ensure food security in Africa, especially in Nigeria.

“Again, the rate of failure of investments in agro-businesses is another gap that needs to be bridged, hence the need to curtail it.

“We can build agro-businesses to become profitable and viable. This way youths can drive the sector.

“One thing that stands out for us at the “incubator hub” is changing the narrative. We want to see young educated people with good agro-business initiatives empowered to start, nurture, and grow their businesses and become empowered to kick-start viable businesses and make profit.

“When youths are driving the agri-business sector, we will no longer struggle with food security, food crisis, and under-capitalisation in the agro eco-system.

“Educated youths can conveniently run lucrative agro-businesses” he said.

He maintained that the project which is scheduled to last two months, is aimed at grooming young people between 18 and 38 years of age on agro-business within an eight-week incubation period.

“After the incubation period, the participants will face judges, who will determine the winner of the most outstanding and viable innovation award using a set of criteria and guidelines.

The winner, he said. will win a seed capital of one million naira.