The Federal Government announced that it will step up awareness creation to enable youth in the country to make informed decisions on food choices in line with the increasing global education on the healthiest and most sustainable options.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Akin Dare at the occasion of the commemoration of the 2021 International Youth Day Celebration (IYD) in Abuja on Friday.
The event themed “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health,” seeks to highlight the urgency of transforming food systems, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic.
What the Minister of Sport said
The Minister stated that the youth hold a crucial role in the socio-economic development of the country, especially as we work towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and related frameworks.
He said, “Government will create the enabling environment and inclusive support mechanisms to ensure that the youth continue to amplify efforts collectively and individually to restore the planet and protect life, while integrating biodiversity in the transformation of food systems in line with the objectives of this year’s celebration.
“Recent global priorities have centered on fighting the impacts of climate change, unemployment, poverty, gender inequality, conflict, and migration. Many nations including our country Nigeria, have witnessed young people’s unprecedented mobilization around the world, which has shown the massive power they possess to hold decision-makers accountable.”
He noted that International Youth Day constitutes part of the United Nation’s broader World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY), an initiative targeted at promoting the general wellbeing and livelihood of young people with priority focused on education, employment, poverty and hunger.
He also revealed that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is presently training close to 5,000 Nigerian Youth across the six geopolitical zones of the country in critical areas of green stimulus, digital skills, AI and Robotics as well as in clean and renewable energy.
In case you missed it
- Nairametrics reported earlier that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), revealed that it has disbursed the sum of N791 billion to more than 3 million farmers across the 36 states of the Federation, under its Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). The CBN added it reduced the interest rate on the loan from 9% to 5%, to encourage more farmers to have access to the credit.
- Earlier this month, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) identified Northern Nigeria and 22 other conflict areas as hunger alert hotspots for the next four months due to covid-19 and conflict.
