The Founder of UMèRA Farms Nigeria Limited, Olamide Alao-Akala, has called for stronger empowerment of Nigerian youths as a pathway to achieving sustainable agricultural development in the country.
In a statement on Monday, Alao-Akala urged the federal government to strengthen support for grassroots agricultural initiatives and youth-focused solutions.
She noted that although Nigeria is blessed with vast arable land and a resilient youth population, many young people remain disengaged due to lack of accessible funding and weak institutional support.
“The problem is not a lack of interest among Nigerian youths, but a lack of systems that work for the ordinary citizen,” she said.
Alao-Akala added that several agricultural loan schemes are either politicised or become transactional at the point of execution, discouraging genuine young entrepreneurs.
She criticised commercial banks partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for often demanding unofficial payments before disbursing loans.
Highlighting the Soilless Farm Lab’s youth training initiative as a practical model, she urged replication of such programmes across the 36 states.
“This project, funded by foreign aid, equips youths with hands-on agricultural training—yet no Nigerian bank is behind it,” she said.
At UMèRA Farms, the team has cultivated several acres of cashew and oil palm through cooperative farming and is now developing a youth-focused aquaculture ecosystem.
“We intend to train youths across the aquaculture value chain—from hatchery management and feed formulation to harvesting and packaging,” Alao-Akala explained. “But progress is slow due to lack of funding and no government or foreign aid support.”
She emphasised the importance of addressing every segment of the agricultural value chain, particularly in processing, packaging, storage, and logistics.
“One of our major setbacks is poor storage infrastructure. Without proper preservation, we face high post-harvest losses, erratic pricing, and economic instability,” she said.
Earlier this year, UMèRA Farms self-funded a reservoir project for irrigation and fish farming, which locals assumed was a government initiative.
“That shows the scale of our impact. Imagine what we could do with actual government backing,” she said. “We’re not asking for handouts—we’re building solutions. What we need is recognition and reinforcement of grassroots efforts.”
She called on the Ministry of Agriculture to prioritise scalable agribusiness models, reduce bureaucratic barriers to financing, and promote local processing and technology adoption.
UMèRA Farms Nigeria Limited is an integrated agribusiness focused on cooperative farming, youth empowerment, and sustainable agriculture. Its operations span cashew, oil palm, aquaculture, and capacity building.
The organisation is also seeking partnerships with private investors, international development agencies, and government institutions to scale its training programmes and cooperative models that make agriculture attractive and profitable for Nigeria’s youth.
