Fulfilling its objective of engaging rural youths and providing them with opportunities to improve their livelihood through exposure to modern agriculture, the IFAD- Agrihub project recently was at Ile-Ogbo community, Iwo in Osun state for sensitization and identification of potential beneficiaries of the project.

IFAD Agrihub had partnered with a Food processing company, CATO Foods based in the community to provide hands on training and internship opportunities for the rural youths to develop businesses in the food processing value chain or develop their skills to secure employment in food processing industry.

To communicate the initiative to the youths within the community, the team realized that the engagement of community leaders was essential hence; they paid a courtesy visit to the paramount ruler of the community, HRM Abeeb Adetoyese Agbaje and the high Chiefs.

The team who were led to the palace of the paramount ruler by the co-founder of CATO Foods, Pelumi Aribisala explained the economic benefit of providing the project with an enabling environment for it to thrive.  

The Paramount ruler, who was impressed by the IFAD-Agrihub’s initiative  encouraged the team to do their best to realize their targeted outcomes. He commended the IFAD Agrihub Nigeria project for bringing the training program to the community, and promised his support to the success of the project in the community.

The paramount ruler however offered at no cost, some facilities such as the community hall as the venue for training and interactive session while he also provided vehicles to convey the youths within the community to the venue for the activities.