By Faridat Salifu
At the Arewa Agricultural and Innovation Summit in Kano, the Federal Government’s message to Nigerian youth was straightforward, agriculture has room for far more than farming, and now it has room for you too.
That message came from Hajiya Hauwa Liman, Technical Assistant to the Vice President on Women, Youth Engagement and Impact, who used the summit to announce that 200 young Nigerians have already been brought into clusters designed to drive innovation and growth across the sector.
Liman described the initiative as a deliberate shift, moving youth and women empowerment away from policy conversations and toward practical steps that actually create lasting impact.
Behind that shift sits months of groundwork, she said, conversations held across seven states and three regions of Nigeria, where officials listened to young people, documented their concerns and ideas, and used that input to build something concrete rather than another round of discussion.
The summit’s real purpose, according to Liman, is giving young Nigerians access to the tools, networks and support systems needed to turn their own ideas into something workable.
She encouraged attendees to think past the farm itself when picturing where agriculture could take them, pointing to logistics and food processing as natural extensions of the sector.
Move from agriculture into logistics, she said, or into processing food, and you’ve effectively built a new business out of what looked like a single industry.
Her broader point centered on participation, young Nigerians shouldn’t just be invited to hear proposed solutions, they should be handed real chances to pitch and implement their own.
Rounding out the summit, Liman pointed to competitions and hands on engagements built specifically to showcase cultural innovation and technology driven solutions from the youth in attendance.
