By Ayo Fadimu
The Chief Executive Officer, Nubien Organics, Mrs Oduoye Opeyemi, has pleaded with the Federal Government to provide low-interest loans and free lands to promote youth entrepreneurship and small businesses.
She made the plea in Abuja at the inauguration of the organisation’s inauguration of Sweet Potato Powder formular introduced by the organisation.
Opeyemi said that youth entrepreneurship would offer innovative solutions to economic growth, reduce unemployment and motivate development in the country.
“There are tonnes of opportunities around us and food is one of them, so the government can come in by supporting the youths with loans to encourage them to start a business.
“Definitely, when we have more hands in the farms, we will have more products out there and at the long run, Nigeria will be a better place.
“Government can help encourage our unemployed youths by creating spaces for farming to encourage them to have their own farm produce and also produce more for the country.
“The government can also grant loans to farmers because when the farmers do not have enough money to produce, things will be costly,” she said.
Opeyemi noted that with an enabling environment for small business owners, they would in turn venture into exporting their products.
According to her, exporting the products would help small companies to grow and become more competitive.
Ms Prisca Onuoha, a nutritionist, also advised entrepreneurs that are into food processing not to add additives to processed foods.
“In food science, we were taught not to waste our natural foods, rather, put them into a processed product so that when these foods are no more, we can have something to eat.
“My advice is that when you are processing these foods, make sure you are not adding additives that are unhealthy to the body and make sure you follow a healthy processing pattern,” she said.