Historic day for ADRA Business

Tuesday December 8th 2015, ADRA Denmark signed an agreement with Babcock SDA University in Nigeria, which will give students and unemployed youth the option to start their own business.

The signatures are inked and the deal is done. Seated: Yetunde Makinde, Group Managing Director of Babcock Investment Group, Lehnart Falk, Secretary General of ADRA Denmark. Standing from left: Lars Rechter, CEO VENZO A/S, Fred Omosebi, Country Director of ADRA Nigeria, Carsten Wærn, CEO Pharmavie A/S and Erik Buch Procida, Director of ADRA Business..

ADRA Business has, with danishknowhow as a subcontractor, undertaken to prepare a business plan for the Babcock Ingrower, a new concept in Nigeria where agricultural students and unemployed youth from the nearby villages are trained to start their own companies within agriculture.

Babcock SDA University is Nigeria's largest privately run university with 12,000 boarding students and has domestic production of many products, including several agricultural products. The university offers among others a 5-year agricultural training with one year of practice. Students in the Ingrower concept will be trained for 1½ to 2 years before they start their own business. During the training, they get their own piece of land for cultivation of crops and raising of livestock while they are guaranteed marketing of the produce and put money aside for their own future project. The students must develop their own business plan, which later is the basis for the subsequent start for themselves.

Joy over the agreement. From left: Anders Frigaard, Director of danishknowhow, Yetunde Makinde, Group Managing Director of Babcock Investment Group and Fred Omosebi, Country Director of ADRA Nigeria..

The agreement was signed at Kurhotel Skodsborg where more than 30 interested businessmen, investment funds, financial institutions, councils and private people attended to hear about the Ingrower concept. The first phase of Babcock Ingrower amount to an investment of some 2.4 million USD, which will be raised by a combination of Babcock University's own investment, Danish investors and loans in Nigeria and Denmark.

The university has been offered a very large area for agriculture which in future will be the opportunity for many new small businesses. The market in Nigeria for agricultural products is big, as an example min. 70% of chickens are imported from China and South America, so the potential for domestic production is very large. Babcock Ingrower will focus on vegetable production and poultry breeding and will have its own slaughterhouse for chickens. Moreover Kentucky Fried Chiken has expressed interest in buying products from the future production. All this is expected to be clarified and be in place in the first quarter of 2016 via a bankable business plan.

Great interest in the plans and possibilities of the new agreement between ADRA Business and Babcock Investment Group (SDA University), Nigeria..

Babcock University is in the process of acquiring another university in eastern Nigeria so the potential for development of small businesses is a major long-term strategy taken on by Babcock University.

28.01.2016ADRA Danmark

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Historic day for ADRA Business