In southern Nigeria, many young people face limited access to agricultural financing. They are often excluded from accessing formal credit despite their potential due to a lack of collateral, experience, or institutional trust.
In 2023, HortiNigeria, in partnership with Soilless Farm Lab (also known as Eupepsia Place Limited), launched a youth-targeted pitch competition in Ogun State. The initiative was designed as a financial innovation: rather than offering loans or subsidies directly, youth were invited to pitch scalable agribusiness ideas and compete for access to grants.
This demand-driven approach gave young people a voice in shaping the interventions they wanted to pursue and created a pathway to unlock ideas that might otherwise have been abandoned.
One of the standout participants in the competition was Abraham Ogundijo, a young man with a bold proposal: to scale onion production in southern Nigeria—a region where onion farming has long been considered unfeasible due to climatic challenges and limited technical knowledge, leading to heavy reliance on supply from the north. Through the HortiNigeria program, Abraham had learned about improved agronomic techniques, quality seeds, and market-focused strategies in onion production.
“My plan is to train others, so they can also start onion farming in their communities. If more youth see that this works, we won’t just be growing onions, we will be growing opportunities, improving food and nutrition security.”
Abraham Ogundijo
In 2023, Abraham won the competition but faced unexpected setbacks that led to a loss in yields. Undeterred, he entered another competition in 2024 and went on to win. Abraham is now making significant strides in his agribusiness journey and continues to deepen his knowledge in onion production with support from HortiNigeria.
Abraham, alongside nine other winners, was awarded a grant of 1,000,000 Nigerian naira (approximately U.S. $650) to bring his idea to life. He used this money to purchase inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers, and drip irrigation equipment. He then established a 500 square meter onion demonstration plot and with well-placed drips and excellent onion spacing, the plot promised a fruitful harvest.
Abraham’s resilience and initiative have inspired other youths in the community, showing that access to knowledge and financial support can transform lives. Abraham continues to reinvest in his farm to expand his operations and now mentors other young people, serving as an example of what is possible.
“My plan is to train others, so they can also start onion farming in their communities. If more youth see that this works, we won’t just be growing onions, we will be growing opportunities, improving food and nutrition security,” said Abraham.
The success of Abraham’s pilot has sparked broader interest in onion production across the south, as he uses social media to showcase his outcomes, offering a new path for job creation, food security, and agribusiness diversification.
What made Abraham’s dream possible was not just the funding, it was the structure of the funding. By requiring young people to pitch their ideas, the HortiNigeria program empowered them as co-creators of solutions, rather than passive recipients of aid.
Financial innovations like these can boost inclusion and drive entrepreneurship in agriculture, especially in the horticulture sector, helping our next generation agricultural leaders scale new ideas.
The HortiNigeria program (2021-2025), funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nigeria, aims to facilitate the development of a sustainable and inclusive horticulture sector that contributes to food and nutrition security in Nigeria. HortiNigeria is led by IFDC and implemented together with KIT Institute, Wageningen University and Research, and East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation.
