Partnership between VITA and Agribusiness TV to promote young agricultural entrepreneurs

Zepintel June 6, 2017 2639 No Comments

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The Italian editorial group VITA and Agribusiness TV announce the signature of a partnership to promote the talent of young agricultural entrepreneurs in Africa. This agreement has been signed in the framework of an editorial project of VITA, co-financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), which links about 30 private African media on themes related to peace and security, inter-religious migrations and dialogue.

“The partnership with Agribusiness TV is strategic for our project since the challenges addressed by this web TV are one of the key answers to the issue of migration of young Africans to Europe, among which, there is poverty and lack of opportunities offered to youth in terms of employment”, highlights Riccardo Bonacina, the president of VITA. “Faced by the high unemployment rate and the lack of decent jobs, more and more youth from rural areas are migrating. And yet, there are opportunities locally. Through this partnership, we want to put young Africans in the limelight, who despite poverty and insecurity, have been able to create opportunities in the continent by venturing into agricultural and rural entrepreneurship, including migrants who returned to their country of origin in Africa”, explains Inoussa Maiga, founder of Agribusiness TV.

Launched in May 2016 in Ouagadougou with the support of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), a joint international organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union (EU), Agribusiness TV is the first web TV, completely dedicated to young agricultural entrepreneurs. The objective of its young founders and journalists, the Burkinabè Inoussa Maiga and the Mauritian Nawsheen Hosenally, is to change the image of the agricultural sector among young Africans who are attracted to the cities, but also to change the perspective of African policy makers and donors, who usually do not see the potential in these young people on the job market that is saturated. “We are happy of this collaboration with VITA, which is in itself an element of impact for agribusiness TV, launched just some months ago. We rely more on this type of partnerships to rebrand the image of agriculture in Africa and hence bring more youth to explore their immense potential in this sector and to being in their innovations”, adds Nawsheen Hosenally, co-founder of Agribusiness TV.

With a population of over a billion, of which 70% are aged below 30 years, and the rapid emergence of a middle class eager to spend, Africa is one of the most dynamic regions in the world. It is also a continent which is highly dependent on the agricultural sector for its economic development, as well as food security and employment.

But despite all these, most young Africans are not attracted to agriculture due to its image, its insecurity, its lack of competitiveness and support. To encourage more youth to get engaged in the sector, it is important to make agriculture more attractive, but also to valorise and share the success stories of youth all along the value-chain.

Designed specifically for mobile phones, Agribusiness TV is available on smartphones, on social networks, or exchanged via Bluetooth where Internet connection is not good. Since its launch, the Facebook account of Agribusiness TV has exploded to reach 52,000 fans and its videos have reached over one million views.

The agreement with VITA is starting with a pilot phase during which five video reports will be produced from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Kenya. “The objective is to have success stories in the countries touched by migrations or other issues like terrorism”.

Agribusiness TV is an initiative of MEDIAPROD, supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) through its Agriculture, Rural Development and Youth in the Information Society (ARDYIS) project.

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