Youth In Agrifood Export Development Program

The Youth in Agri-Food Export Development Program (YAEDP) - an export capacity-building program implemented by the African Food Changemakers and supported by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) - closed out in December 2022 after a one-year period of program implementation. The program kicked off in January 2022, attracting 7,484 applicants before 6,317 of them were shortlisted for the first phase of the program (training phase).

1,623 young Nigerian agripreneurs successfully completed the six-week intensive training, comprising of six modules and 17 courses on export-related topics offered through a dedicated e-learning platform. 870 participants qualified to take an export-readiness diagnostic tool to assess their export readiness level, from where 105 outstanding participants were selected for the second phase of the program (technical assistance phase).

The technical assistance phase kicked off in October 2022 with two physical workshops and field visits followed by a series of mentoring sessions and handholding sessions in November 2022 which aimed at facilitating the participants' export readiness.

YAEDP officially wrapped up in December 2022 with a closeout event with the 105 final participants, during which AFC launched an export resource hub where stakeholders in the export business can access and connect with the 105 YAEDP participants.

Through participation in the YAEDP, more than 50% of the final participants have engaged in value addition/diversification of their products, 90% have created new jobs for youth and women, and up to 70% of participants have completed/are in the process of completing their first export transaction.