As part of activities to commemorate the 2023 International Youth Day, the Feed the Future Ghana Policy LINK Activity partnered with the Centre for Agricultural Productivity and Policy Studies (CAPPS) at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity, and Ghana Mobilizing Finance for Agriculture (MFA) Activity to organize a Youth Policy Dialogue on August 10, 2023, in Tamale. The dialogue was themed "Promoting Agribusiness: Empowering Youth to Take Agriculture as a Viable Business Opportunity.

The program sensitized a cross-section of students drawn from UDS, Tamale Technical University, Tamale Senior High School, Kalpohin Senior High School, Northern School of Business, Business High School, St Charles Seminary Senior High School, Tamale Islamic Science Senior High School, and Northern Region Youth Parliament on available agribusiness opportunities.

Mr Yunus Abdulai, Country Lead for Ghana Policy LINK, stated in his welcome remarks that the platform contributes to efforts by Feed the Future Ghana Policy LINK to persuade youth to take agribusiness as a viable venture and create jobs for themselves. The Sagnarigu Municipal Chief Executive, Hon. Ahmed Yakubu, who gave a keynote address, stressed that the government is making frantic efforts to build the capacity of youth to venture into entrepreneurship through the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme and YouStart. Representatives of the partnering institutions, namely Prof. Abdul-Halim Abubakari, the Vice Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Sciences- CAPPS-UDS, Cecil Osei, Deputy Chief of Party- MSR, and Mr. Joseph Gyapong- MFA gave brief remarks.

Prof. Abdul-Halim Abubakari said that the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Sciences and Business Innovations and Incubation Centre have attractive programmes that train students and young people to be successful agripreneurs. He stressed that UDS, particularly CAPPS, is ready to partner with any organization to build the capacity of the students who graduate out of the university as job creators rather than job seekers.

Dr Adinan B. Shafiwu, a Research Associate of CAPPS presented on “Agriculture Policy Interventions in 2023 National Budget for youth: Empowering the Youth to Venture into Agribusiness.”  The presentation highlighted agriculture policy interventions contained in the 2023 National Budget and the Mid-Year Budget Review that the youth can leverage to become successful agripreneuers.

The program included a panel discussion on “Youth-Driven Solutions for Agricultural Development and Job Creation”. The five-panel discussants included Dr. Franklin N. Mabe, the Director of CAPPS. The discussions emphasized the need for government to design tailor-made agribusiness interventions for youth in rural and urban areas.

On August 12, 2023, the partners climaxed the International Youth Day celebration with an Agribusiness Seminar on the theme "Empowering Young Agripreneurs: Drivers for Innovation and Sustainable Economic Growth in Northern Ghana" in Bolgatanga. A major result from the commemoration of International Youth Day is a communique- which highlights the challenges affecting youth in agribusiness, opportunities available and recommendations to encourage youth to take the venture as a viable option for economic development.

Written by Dr. Franklin N. Mabe, Director, CAPPS, UDS