Some 150,000 rural young people in Senegal – 50 per cent of them women - will benefit from a new US$93.3 million project, the International Fund for Agricultural Development said on Monday.
The project aims to create income and decent sustainable jobs in agricultural, pastoral and fishery value chains through entrepreneurship development for people aged 15-35 including the disabled, the UN agency said.
The financing agreement for the Rural Youth Agripreneur Support Project (Agrijeunes Tekki Ndawñi) was signed by correspondence by IFAD president Gilbert F. Houngbo and Amadou Hott, Senegal's Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation in Dakar on Monday.
In Senegal, the youth employment rate is low, and every year 160,000 young Senegalese enter in the job market. Rural underemployment is particularly high (31 per cent) and contributes to migration and rural exodus.
Agrijeunes Tekki Ndawñi will lift the barriers that keep young people for becoming agripreneurs. Those obstacles include lack of production tools, land, information, access to markets and financial services. It will enable rural young people to become modern agripreneurs with viable businesses and sustainable incomes, IFAD said
The new project will train young people to acquire the capacity to sustainably manage their activities: crops, livestock and fish production, processing and marketing. It will help them transform family farms into modern, market-oriented enterprises, according to IFAD.
The project will be implemented in four agroecological zones of Senegal: the Niayes region, the Groundnut Basin, the Sylvopostoral zone and Middle Casamance, while promoting knowledge about good nutritional practices.
Project financing includes a $51.9 million loan from IFAD. The project will be cofinanced by the African Development Bank ($10.7 million), the Government of Senegal ($7.2 million) and the beneficiaries themselves ($5.9 million). A financing gap of $17.5 million will be covered by future partnerships to be developed with other institutions involved in youth agriculture.
IFAD has financed 19 rural development programmes and projects in Senegal at a total cost of $865.5 million, with an IFAD investment of $361.2 million since 1979.
These projects and programmes have directly benefited 544,643 rural households.
