The Chairman of Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, says the fund is looking for partnerships with governments, native organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to expand its development initiatives throughout Africa, together with Nigeria.
The Saudi Arabia Prince made the remarks on Wednesday throughout a press convention with journalists in Armenia.
When PREMIUM TIMES requested what particular investments or programmes is AGFUND keen to prioritise in Nigeria to assist younger entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers and community-led development, and the way can Nigeria entry this assist, the Saudi Arabian Prince stated the organisation is wanting to work with native partners to establish development challenges in completely different African international locations and develop options tailor-made to their wants.
The AGFUND Chairman additionally disclosed the organisation’s development priorities, together with efforts to sort out unemployment by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs and monetary inclusion initiatives.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, continues to grapple with the unemployment problem, amid authorities efforts to create enough employment alternatives for its rising inhabitants, significantly younger folks coming into the labour market to handle the hovering fee of younger abilities leaving the nation, which is often often called “japa” in the Nigerian parlance.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s official unemployment fee is pegged inside the vary of 4.3 to 4.9 per cent. Although underneath the older NBS methodology used prior to 2023, the reported unemployment fee was a lot greater, it was about 33.3 per cent in late 2020. A overwhelming majority of the Nigerian workforce operates in the casual sector, with the casual employment fee estimated at roughly 92.8 per cent.
On Wednesday, a Nigerian local weather know-how and agritech startup, D-Olivette Labs, emerged as considered one of 4 winners of the 2025 Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development, receiving $200,000 for its clean-energy innovation.
Addressing unemployment
In his response to PREMIUM TIMES reporter’s query, Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud defined that the organisation is looking for to assist handle unemployment by supporting entrepreneurs somewhat than counting on governments to take in an rising variety of graduates into public-sector employment.
“When we talk about unemployment, you know, most of these countries, some of them are our countries as well, whoever graduates is always looking for a government position,” the consultant stated.
“Government position, they would say it’s much safer, it’s much secure, etc., but we want to stay away from these government positions because government will reach a day where they don’t have any more positions for new employees.”
The consultant stated AGFUND was exploring methods to assist small companies and entrepreneurs develop, together with by way of monetary inclusion banks that present microloans and share data with beneficiaries.
“So, I think our part of what we’re doing is we’re trying to help SMEs. We’re trying to help entrepreneurs,” the consultant stated.
The initiative, the consultant defined, is meant to assist low-income people set up companies, expand their actions and ultimately make use of different folks.
“So, these poor people, whoever they are, wherever they are, tomorrow they will become employers. They will have employees. And this is the effect that we want,” the consultant stated.
Microfinance and native partnerships
The AGFUND Chair stated its method builds on a mission that started in 2006–2007 and is now being expanded additional into Africa.
The organisation’s consultant stated AGFUND was established to assist development initiatives that different funding establishments may not prioritise.
The prince cited the organisation’s work on monetary inclusion and microfinance banks, linked to the late Prince Talal, the founding father of AGFUND, and Professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank.
He stated the organisation was now looking for partnerships with authorities establishments and NGOs to establish particular wants and develop interventions that would assist communities develop into economically self-reliant.
According to the him, increasing these initiatives would require an understanding of the variations in tradition, rules and development priorities throughout African international locations.
The consultant additionally cautioned in opposition to focusing solely on large-scale tasks, arguing that smaller pilot initiatives may present a extra sensible route to sustainable development.
“Sometimes we’re looking for the big projects, the mega-projects, the giga-projects. How many projects we’ve seen in the region have not succeeded? How many projects we’ve seen in Africa, for example, they have not succeeded?” the consultant stated.
“The aspirations are very big and the dreams are very big, but sometimes you need a pilot project.”
The consultant stated AGFUND checks initiatives on a smaller scale earlier than increasing profitable tasks, with changes to replicate the circumstances of various areas.
Africa’s development challenges
Additionally, Prince Abdulaziz additionally highlighted the various financial and social challenges confronting African international locations, together with instability, financial difficulties and declining international funding for development.
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The consultant stated these challenges made it mandatory for African international locations to construct on current establishments and development platforms somewhat than frequently creating new ones.
Referring to the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the consultant stated the continent was coming into a brand new section of its long-term development imaginative and prescient and wanted to align current efforts to handle persistent issues comparable to unemployment.
“How can we align ourselves with whatever already exists? Why do we need to always create new platforms, find new solutions? No, the solutions are there. The platforms are there,” the consultant stated.
“All we need to do is just realign to stop having unemployment, if we can.”
AGFUND’s proposed enlargement may create alternatives for Nigerian development organisations, authorities companies and NGOs to discover partnerships aimed toward enhancing entry to finance and supporting entrepreneurship.
However, the organisation didn’t specify the quantity of funding it plans to commit to Nigeria, the variety of beneficiaries it expects to attain or a timeline for implementing new initiatives in the nation.
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