By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has partnered Forum For Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) to establish and launch the Agricultural Research and Innovation Fellowship For Africa (ARIFA) innovation platform in Nigeria.
ARIFA is aimed towards producing a new generation of fit-for purpose workforce to re-engineer the African agri-food sector to provide the change factor for rapid agricultural transformation in the next 10 years.
In the first phase of ARIFA, TETFund has identified six institutions for the establishment of IPs, which are Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, University of Benin, University of Lagos, Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, University of Maiduguri and University of Jos.
Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, during his opening remark at the event in Abuja, explained that the Fund’s intervention in ARIFA will impact on faculties and departments across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions resulting in the delivery of science-led solutions for improved livelihoods while sustaining and advancing academic excellence.
He explained that TETFund had supported over 120 scholars nominated by beneficiary institutions, with most of the Phase one nominees rounding off their programs this year.
He added that the pre-admission process of the second phase of the Program had since commenced and TETFund remained committed to supporting another 500 sets of fellows.
According to him, TETFund recognised the ARIFA model as an innovative strategy for revitalizing pedagogy that will strengthen the institutional capacities of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions and contribute to building the knowledge- based economy through its Centers of Excellence (CoE) across the country.
“As you all know, agriculture is a critical sector in Nigeria, and we must continue to invest in research and innovation to ensure sustainable growth and development. The ARIFA fellowship represents a strategic stride in this respect and we are excited to have these highly trained fellows join us in this endeavour.
“The fellows will be applying their different expertise and knowledge in TAIPS, which will be invaluable as we work to improve the productivity and competitiveness of our agricultural industry.
“So, I urge you to make the best of this three-day training and ensure that you continue to be part of the innovation ecosystem that we all envision towards strengthening Nigeria’s educational and agri-food systems,” he stated.
Also speaking, Executive Director for FARA, Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, said the launch of the programme is the beginning of realization of ARIFA training in Brazil.
He added that the ARIFA fellow returnees from Brazil will be planted back to their institutions where they took off to Brazil.
According to him, Agriculture is so crucial to the development of Africa, noting that more than 80 percent of the working population in the continent derive their livelihood from agriculture.
