Recognising the importance of diversity and inclusion in the country’s food industry, the Food Health Systems Advisory (FHSA) has unveiled the Young Female Food Professional (YFP) initiative to increase women’s leadership representation in Nigeria’s food systems.
The YFP initiative is a year-long mentorship and training programme for young female food professionals. Also, FHSA launched the FoodPoly initiative to offer targeted workforce recruitment training services for the food industry.
“Women are at the centre of Nigeria’s agriculture and there is a need to recognise the role that they play in agriculture if we are truly serious about tackling the hunger crisis in Nigeria and Africa,” Vivian Maduekeh, managing partner of FHSA, said at the unveiling of the YFP initiative recently in Lagos.
“Women are at the centre of Nigeria’s agriculture and account for almost 60 percent of the workforce in the food systems, but these jobs are mostly at the bottom,” Maduekeh said, noting the need to have more food system leaders who are women.
“We need to have more food systems leaders who are women, leading large food corporations and inspiring and providing opportunities for other women,” she noted.
Speaking about the YFP initiative and the 10 selected fellows for the inaugural programme, she said over 500 applications were received, and a rigorous selection process and scrutiny were done to select fellows.
After the mentorship programme, the fellows will undergo internship positions in large food factories for three months and another three months with a female-led business in the food sector, she said.
She appreciated the Gates Foundation for its support for the initiative in Nigeria, adding that it will be launched in other African countries.
On the FoodPoly programme, which was also launched alongside the YFP, she said, the FoodPoly was birthed out of the need to address the recruitment gap in the food sector.
She described Foodpoly as a pan-African workforce recruitment training service specific to those in the food industry.
Victor Ajiro, board chairman of FHSA, said Africa needs three things —women, youth, and technology to address its economic challenges sustainably.
“When you bring in the role of women, technology and building leadership skills that are transformative, then you send the foundations. We are not just talking, we are taking action.”
“We are not just addressing the issues of today but also those of tomorrow. There is a strong action orientation, a strong solution orientation and future orientation.”
Amarachukwu Okoronkwo, one of the selected FYP fellows, said the mentorship programme, which has already commenced, had been mind-blowing, adding that it exposes her to a lot in the food industry. She added that it has helped her rediscover herself.
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