Finance, the KEY component to starting a business?

In Robert Kiyosaki's words: "There are three components to starting a business. One is the right plan; two is the right team and three is the money. Rarely do these three components come together when starting a business. It's the dusty of an entrepreneur to grab one piece and start the business, the remaining two pieces will be found along the way. Finding the two components may take a year or more than 10 years; the point is start with what you have"

While some might argue that Robert is right, I wonder if his ideas are practicable and attainable, particularly in an ambiance such as ours. In this our "obodo naija"can you actually start a business with just a good plan and without money? Or can you start with a good plan, the right team but without the necessary start-up funds?

Agribusiness and the Youth

Currently, Nigeria is taking giant strides towards encouraging youths in participating in agribusiness ventures. Statistics show that the average age of the Nigerian farmer is 55 years and if nothing is done to force this down, when this phase of farmers pass, there would be no new generation of farmers hence a possible major food crisis.

Recently, The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in collaboration with the Zamfara state government trained 7,000 graduates in developing skills in agribusiness. Another key programme is the Youth Employment in Agriculture and Rural Development which was launched by the erstwhile Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and now African Development Bank President; Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. Adesina stated that the programme would develop 18,500 university graduates who will be formed into young agribusiness entrepreneurs called nagropreneurs. In his words, ‘’…they will develop business along the various agriculture value chains from the farms, storage, processing, value addition, financial services and logistics. Together with the recently launched presidential school initiative, we will connect the young school children in agriculture to the nagropreneurs and they will become the new millionaires and billionaires of Nigeria’’.