One of the main objectives of the Youth Employment in Agribusiness and Sustainable Agriculture (YEASA) project by giving grants to agripreneurs in Nigeria and Benin republic is to kickstart, build, sustain and grow their agribusiness enterprises which spread across the regions in Benin republic and Nigeria.
The beneficiaries were full of praise for the YEASA project. They particularly commended the integrity of the program in picking candidates based on merit, the impactful online and on-site training, and most importantly the grant. The grant is made up of both the cash grant and equipment needed for their business operation in the crop production or value addition business.
The second year of the YEASA project started with the application phase in July 2020 and progressed to the online training phase where 200 agripreneurs were trained on the key elements of setting up a successful agribusiness enterprise through various production courses and business soft skill. A total of 103 were selected after the business plan screening stage.
The final 103 grant awardees had their businesses awarded the grants because they met the set criteria, including business scalability, unique selling proposition, a good financial statement of the business, and overall business concept.
The 2020 edition is the second year of the 3-years project and brings the total number of direct beneficiaries to 150 and the total amount of grants so far awarded to beneficiaries since 2019 is $75,000.