The mall is to provide youths interested in agriculture with farm inputs and funds to enable them grow crops of their choice .

The state governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed disclosed this at the weekend during a special media chat focused on youth held at the Government’s Lodge, Government House, Ilorin.

Governor Ahmed explained that the Agric mall is designed principally to offer kwaran youths ample opportunity to access loans, farm inputs, and every other thing needed to support them in order to establish their farms.

He pledged that the agric mall would be replicated in all three senatorial districts of the state, as a way to making the opportunity available at the door step of every youth, especially those at the grass roots.

According to him, the initiative was part of government pragmatic approach to make kwara youths job creators and employers of labour rather than job seekers.

The governor explained that the rationale behind the enumeration of youths using KWABES as a platform was basically to position kwara youths into various skills including Agriculture.

He stated further that the establishment of Malete Youth Farm where youths are undergoing training in agriculture by the previous administration was a step in the right direction, adding that quite number of youths have graduated from the scheme and subsequently given funds to jump start their own farms across the state.

“The success recorded would now enable us to begin to explain it by choosing people from each of the 16 LG who largely would become what we call change agents” governor explained.

According to him, those farmers who have successfully completed their own farming skill acquisition at malete would be made to be change agents in agriculture sector, pointing out that youths that underwent training at Malete Youth Farm have been compartmentalized in to crops and locations with expectation to transfer that skill to others in their respective areas.

Speaking on Ajase-Ipo International Vocational Center, governor Ahmed said the project was designed to meet up with international standard, adding that the center was first of its kind in the country.

According to him, the government partners C$G of London in order to help her design the center in such away that the products of the center would be fit to work in any part of the world, using the C$G certificate as potent ticket to gain entrance in to any vocational work across the globe.

He said the aim of the center was not only to add value to vocational skills but also to make kwaran youths job creators and more importantly prepare them to work in any part of the world.