About Us
Food4All Initiative – About the Project
Food4All Initiative is a social enterprise investment programme whose “operating funds” are generated primarily through philanthropy, social investment and also from the financial investment by individuals, businesses and other investors. Generated funds are invested in financing youths and women to become successful farmers, food producers and value chain service providers.
Nigeria’s Food Crisis
In Nigeria today, there is food insecurity and acute hunger crisis. Millions of households starve and skip meals every day because they are too poor to afford the high costs of food items. Most families find it difficult to afford one good meal per day. This is the point we must intervene to address Nigeria’s existing hunger crisis and rescue the millions of Nigerian children, elderly citizens, pregnant women, nursing mothers and other vulnerable Nigerians, who lack easy access to food and are exposed daily to chronic hunger. Consequently, the “Food4All Initiative” was launched. It is a project created and coordinated by FUND-YES Cooperative and Youths Off The Street Initiative (YOTSI).
Our Goal
To advocate, finance, promote and accelerate Nigeria’s adequate investment in agriculture and food production, both on the part of government and citizens, aimed towards nurturing a prosperous, wealthy and healthy agriculture-driven economy where enough jobs exist and quality foods are sufficiently produced, available and affordable for everyone, thus utilizing agriculture as a tool for empowering individuals, families and communities to create their own livelihoods, generate their own wealth, sustain their own income streams, lift themselves out of poverty and become agents of their own development.
Our Approach
Food4All Initiative exists to serve as a wealth creation community of youth and women agri-food entrepreneurs who are active across the value chain and wholly dedicated to actualizing Nigeria’s dream of self-sufficiency in food production, while creating income and wealth for themselves, their investors and also generating social dividends for donors, thus engendering food security and affordability, as well as employment generation and eradication of household poverty.
How “Food4All Initiative” is Funded
Food4All Initiative is a social enterprise investment programme whose “operating funds” are generated primarily through philanthropy, social investment and also from the financial investment by individuals, businesses and other investors. Generated funds are invested in financing youths and women to become successful farmers, food producers and value chain service providers.
Why is Agriculture a Priority
Agriculture is today, sadly rated, among Nigeria’s most under-utilized sectors, a reckless act of government, which has stagnated for too long, the country’s economic growth and development. But for the purpose of the country’s economic survival, productivity and development, Nigeria must prioritize the need for sufficient and adequate investment in Agriculture. The world is currently drifting away from petroleum and this ugly reality has once again exposed the vulnerability of Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil, as the mainstay of its economy.
In some years to come, petroleum oils will not be used in most countries. That means, Nigerian crude oil will become a useless commodity in the global market. Imperatively, Nigeria should at this time return to Agriculture, as its major source of income and earner of foreign exchange. Failure to do this will end up in regrettable future economic consequences. Therefore, agriculture is the present and future economic power of Nigeria. The reality of Nigeria’s declining oil revenue is indeed a critical reminder of the urgent need to take the country back to Agriculture. Nigeria is currently at a stage where oil revenue is no longer enough to finance its economy.
While countries are shifting their business focus away from oil, agriculture remains the industry that powers the earth. The survival of today’s world revolves around agriculture. The world cannot survive without food and raw materials. This signifies the importance of agriculture to the existence of humanity. With its abundant agricultural resources, Nigeria has the capacity to produce enough foods and raw materials for local consumption, domestic revenue generation and for export markets. Nigeria’s agricultural sector has the capacity to generate surplus domestic income, earn sufficient foreign exchange, solve the nation’s high unemployment and drive the country’s sustainable economic prosperity.
In spite of the above-itemized available economic advantages and opportunities attached to agriculture, nearly 50 million hectares of the country’s fertile land still remains uncultivated. It is obvious that Nigeria’s riches, wealth and its overall economic prosperity and social well-being are hidden in Agriculture. Nigeria’s current population is approximately 210 million and it is on record that not less than 70% of these quoted figures live in extreme poverty. Nigeria is today the global headquarters of extreme poverty even though the country is sitting on 84 million hectares of arable land.
Nigeria is endowed with enormous agricultural resources. Therefore, adequate investment in agriculture remains the surest means to empower the generality of Nigerians to conquer unemployment, eradicate household poverty, achieve food security, eliminate hunger, overcome extreme poverty and become the agents of their own development. Only Agriculture can help the country attain this level of social and economic well-being. Agriculture holds the key to Nigeria’s economic resourcefulness, peace, security, stability and overall national well-being.