National Youth Service signs agricultural financing agreement with AgriBank
Agribank and the National Youth Service recently signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding aimed at financing agricultural youth projects, provision of advisory services by Agribank to young farmers, collaboration in research and development initiatives as well as the sharing of information and expertise.
The National Youth Service will develop and present project proposals for AgriBank’s consideration on behalf of trainees vetted by the Youth Service; and also assist with and facilitate the financing application review process between youth applicants and the Bank.
The Youth Service will also identify and present areas for skills development amongst the youth and notify the Bank of upcoming events to jointly coordinate capacity building activities for the youth. It will avail its farms and production areas to Agribank for farmers’ training events. On its part, Agribank will avail its technical advisors and mentors to conduct specified training as per requests from the Youth Service.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Agribank’s Chief Executive Officer, Sakaria Nghikembua, reiterated the need for synergies between state-owned enterprises and the importance of timely data and statistics.
“The importance of synergies and up to date information cannot be over-emphasised to prompt and timely policy interventions in order to be responsive to the needs of our target markets. The signing of this MoU is one way in which Agribank plans to cement its support to the youth in agriculture by responding to their needs in a coherent and targeted fashion”.
On his part, Dr Felix Musukubili, the Commissioner of National Youth Service, noted that it is important to share information on best practices in terms of youth skills development and needs.
“We are excited to be sharing information on agricultural youth projects being implemented by National Youth Service”.
According to Musukubili, they are ready to ensure free information flow in the areas of good corporate governance as agreed by the two institutions and to exchange expertise accordingly.
The two institutions will establish a platform for bi-annual meetings to regularly interact and practically implement the activities under the agreement.
