A YOUNG Ivorian woman, Viviane Kakou, is fulfilling her dream of becoming an agricultural entrepreneur thanks to the African Development Bank’s ‘Enable Youth Côte d’Ivoire’ project. With a master’s degree in geography, Kakou chose to pursue agriculture out of passion, rather than spending her career in an office.
The national programme is providing financial support of €1.4 million to train a new generation of young farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs, as well as encouraging young graduates aged 21-37 to return to the land. For almost six months, Kakou has been training at the Higher School of Agronomy (ESA) in Yamoussoukro, the country’s political capital, as part of the project’s incubation phase. The project is equipping young people with the necessary skills to support the structural transformation of local agriculture through technological innovation, and to create businesses in agricultural value chains. Kakou is working on the value chain for cassava, focusing on subsistence agriculture because she sees cassava as ‘white gold.’ She visited Brazil in 2017 thanks to the project, where she underwent training on cassava. ‘The main derivative of cassava, here, is attiéke. But there are so many cassava derivatives that can be used,’ she says, encouraged by the support she has received from Enable Youth to create her small enterprise. Siaka Koné, Director of ESA, notes the importance of the project in creating optimal conditions for agricultural entrepreneurship through support for capacity building, promoting professionals in agriculture, and funding projects for young people. The aim of the project is to build the capacity of young graduates to create businesses in agricultural value chains. Young graduates will be trained in the skills needed by modern farmers using incubators that support agribusiness projects. Following the incubation phase, they will receive support to fund their businesses. In addition to agriculture and animal production, beneficiaries of the ‘Enable Youth Côte d’Ivoire’ pilot project are also learning about processing and e-commerce. This includes producing and processing cassava into flour, attiéke, a food staple, and other derivatives such as liquid cassava waste, which can be processed into ethanol. Others are working to produce and process peppers into purée and powder, off-season production of plantain, quail and quail eggs, oyster and Ganoderma mushrooms, and rearing rabbits or guinea fowl. Kakou hopes that other young graduates will follow in her footsteps. ‘I’d like to send a message to young people, especially young women, and tell them that I wasn’t simply at a loose end. I have a master’s degree in geography, so finding a job wouldn’t have been an issue. But there are lots of opportunities in agriculture. I’d recommend they get involved. We can coach them to change their plans,’ says Kakou, who in addition to Brazil, has travelled to Ibadan, Nigeria, to advance her agricultural know-how, thanks to the African Development Bank. ‘I’d like to thank the African Development Bank, our Minister for Young People, and the Youth Employment Programme. Thanks to them, my dream is coming true,’ Kakou says, standing in an experimental cassava field of a quarter of a hectare in size. The ‘Enable Youth Côte d’Ivoire’ project is crucial in creating employment opportunities for Ivorian youth. In 2018, 70-90 percent of working-age Ivorians were in vulnerable jobs or unemployed. Through its training and funding initiatives, the project is promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the country.
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Viviane, a young Ivorian graduate swearing by agriculture to achieve her dreams
Thanks to the African Development Bank, her dream of becoming an agricultural entrepreneur is taking shape
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