To boost youth involvement in agribusiness: Researcher recommends creation of Youth Agribusiness Bank.

This is the principal recommendation of a PhD research carried out by Sonkey Louis Ntu. 
The findings of the research were unveiled Thursday December 7, during a defence session staged on the campus of the University of Bamenda, UBa.
Sonkey Louis during the session, defended a PhD in Agribusiness Technology, specialising in project management at College of Technology of the University of Bamenda. 
His thesis focused on: “The implications of financial services and institutions on youth involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship in Fako division”.
It was Prof Njong Mom Aloysius who played the crucial role of president of jury during the defence while Prof Bime Mary served as Rapporteur I. 
For his part, Prof Tambi Daniel Mbu, served as Rapporteur II. Professors Vukenkeng Andrew and Ibrahim Ngouhouo served as Examiners while Prof Jumbo Eleazar was member of the Jury.
In his defence before the well-constituted jury, the PhD candidate, Sonkey Louis, told his audience that the main objective of his study was to examine the implications of financial services and institutions on youth involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship in the Fako Division of the South West Region.
He said the study specifically determined the effect of financial services on youth involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship while assessing the effect of informal institutional characteristics on youth involvement.
Sonkey noted that the study equally analysed the efficiency of formal institutions in developing and involving youths in agribusiness, and investigate the opportunities and challenges of agribusiness entrepreneurship for youths in Fako Division.

He said findings from financial services revealed that personal savings, Government financial services, tontine (Njangi), and financial support from NGOs strongly correlate with youths’ involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship in Fako Division.
He disclosed that banks and microfinance institutions' loans hurt youth involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship as a main occupation in the Fako Division.  
Sonkey told the panel of jury members that “findings from informal institutional characteristics show that custom, norms and fragmentation, and traditional non-working days have a positive relationship with youths’ involvement in agribusiness entrepreneurship whereas the altitude of youths has a negative relationship”.
He said findings from the efficiency of formal institutions revealed that the agribusiness entrepreneurship environment is favorable for youth agribusiness entrepreneurs in the Fako Division “with a lot of projects, programs, and government funding opportunities for youths interested in agribusiness-related activities but they are operating in an inefficient and unfavorable governance structure”.

Proposing a way out
In his recommendations, Sonkey Louis urged government to develop innovative financial services specifically for youths involved in agribusiness entrepreneurship. 
He said: “This can be achieved through the creation of a Youth Agribusiness Bank, Youth Agribank at the level of all the divisions in Cameroon; a bank that will focus solely on developing financial packages for young people involved in any agribusiness-related activities”.
He has also recommended the implementation of a good governance structure to oversee projects and programs geared toward youth involvement through a good public-private partnership, PPP policy development. 
Pressing further, the candidate urged government to reduce the level of bureaucracy, paperwork, and transactional cost faced by stakeholders involved in agribusiness-related activities in Fako.
He has requested government to merge the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Livestock, fishery, and Animal Industry, MINADER and MINEPIA respectively as a single ministry called the: “The Ministry of Agribusiness and Rural Development”. 
“This is because most agribusiness-related projects and funding programs in Cameroon often cut across these two state institutions, hence introducing a lot of paperwork, and transactional costs to the funding organization and beneficiaries” he justified.
Turning to other issues, Sonkey proposed that serious attention be paid to influencing the altitude of youths toward agribusiness-related activities through sensitisation programs such as organising special agropastoral shows only for young people and launching radio and TV programs to advertise the opportunities in agribusiness for young people living in Fako.
“Following the findings on opportunities and challenges of agribusiness entrepreneurship for youths, the government needs to contextualise their agribusiness development programs for youths in line with the opportunities and strengths of agribusiness entrepreneurship in Fako. Hence, a need to avoid generalising agribusiness development strategies in the various parts of Fako division. This will go a long way to curb the threats and weaknesses faced by young agribusiness entrepreneurs in the Fako division,” he concluded.