- Tanzania launches Youth Guarantee Scheme and Loan Facility
- Special scheme to give 11,000 acres to its youth for agriculture
- Youth empowerment initiative to be overseen by the Agricultural Input Trust Fund
Tanzania is giving land to the youth to boost agricultural productivity and create employment.
While speaking at the Africa Food Summit in Dakar, Senegal, Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced that the state will give 11,000 acres to it’s youth for agricultural production.
Suluhu explained that the decision is part of the country’s ‘Building a Better Tommorrow’ (BBT) initiative. Through a special programme, the Tanzanian government has announced that it will give qualifying youth access to land ownership as part of the country’s ongoing initiative to secure economic empowerment for its youth, the largest part of its population.
The move is part of an ongoing national agricultural development initiative that is meant to develop the sector for economic empowerment.
The shortlisted youth will go through a three-month commercial agriculture training program with successful candidates getting 10 acres to engage in agricultural activities.
The training program is meant to empower the youth who will use the allocated land to develop business projects to supply the country’s agriculture value chain.
The initiative operates under a ‘Youth Guarantee Scheme and Loan Facility’ overseen by the Agricultural Input Trust Fund.
Though it caught mass media attention in February as the Tanzanian president responded to inquiries about what the country is doing to improve its agricultural productivity, the BBT program has been operational for the last six months and has so far acquired well over 600,000 hectares that will be distributed to qualifying youth.
The initiative will in effect help achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal, ‘end hunger, promote sustainable agriculture, and achieve food security and improved nutrition.’
Tanzania’s agriculture sector contributes nearly one-third of the country’s GDP, third after gold and tourism in earning the country foreign currency. It is however, the country’s biggest employer employing over 75 percent of the population.
However, smallholder farmers dominate the sector with many lacking access to modern productive and financial resources and even where productivity is good, transport infrastructure is poor making commercial farming nonfeasible.
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Building Blocks for food sufficiency
These facts make the “Building a Better Tomorrow” initiative a pillar of agriculture development in Tanzania.
The BBT Youth Initiative for Agribusiness (BBT-YIA) programme will run for eight years, and is expected to fund over 12,000 profitable enterprises across 12,000 villages in Tanzania.
It will involve the training of 200,000 youths through internship programmes and mentoring and coaching of 15,000 youth-led agribusinesses through a score of various incubation programmes.
“To be eligible for the programme, applicants must be a Tanzanian youth aged 18-40 years and have experience in agricultural activities,” the government announced.
The programme also requires the applicant to be ‘actively engaged in an agricultural enterprise at the time of application, using land that is theirs or family’s or rented.
The Tanzanian government is using BBT programme to support the growth of a thriving agribusiness sector and address the challenges faced by young people and women in the agriculture sector.
The selected beneficiaries are divided into four clusters: youth entrepreneurs in established agribusinesses, youth entrepreneurs whose agribusinesses are not yet established, youth trained to be the workforce in established agribusinesses, and youth that are interested but not yet actively engaged in agriculture.
According to USAID, investment in Tanzania’s agriculture sector is constrained by ‘limited access to long-term capital and low levels of capacity and business skills.’
“Climate change poses significant risks of prolonged drought and unpredictable weather, threatening the livelihoods of subsistence farmers,” adds USAID.
Worse still, Tanzania is facing rapid population growth which means dependency is increasing as well as unemployment. By setting up a program to enable youth to invest in agriculture, the country aims to increase food production and create employment for its youth.
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Government commitment and support
The publicized BBT program is only part of larger national agriculture development programs that are been undertaken under President Samia’s leadership.
Samia has proclaimed that her government will achieve a 10 percent agricultural annual growth rate by 2030; a figure considerably high compared to the current 3.6 percent annual growth rate.
To support the Tanzanian leader’s ambitions, the African Development Bank Group has issued the country $120 million to fund at least four agriculture value chains by investing in irrigation and logistics hubs.
Notably, as early as August of 2022, the country’s annual Farmers Day dubbed ‘NaneNane,’ President Samia announced the BBT program and invited youth to sign up.
“We have already discussed with local banks to see how they can offer soft loans to our youth,” she said.
The President also reassured the youth and stakeholders that “the Government has secured a reliable market abroad.”
Tanzania’s Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, (Labour, Employment, Youth and Disabled), Prof Joyce Ndalichako told a press conference that; “…through economic empowerment funds, the government issued the funds, which among others, aimed at addressing youth employment challenges.”
The Minister of State said the funds supported over 4,000 youth groups reaching some 45,300 plus youth and funded the creation of self-employment opportunities.
Through the Youth Development Fund, Tanzania continues to fund youth development initiatives in various areas the latest is the BBT program that continues to support agriculture initiatives for youth.
