YABICs – YOUTH AGRI BUSINESS INCUBATION CENTERS

The word YABIC is used as the abbreviated form for “Youth Agri Business Incubation Centers”, which are the Centers where the agripreneurs interns of ENABLE Youth Cameroon are trained across the 5 intervention regions of the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project, following the IITA youth agripreneur guidelines. To optimize the incubation and facilitate the follow-up of each intern, ENABLE Youth Cameroon supports housing and the 3 daily meals of aspiring agripreneurs, following a boarding system specific to the Program.

The incubation period of ENABLE Youth Cameroon covers 12 months of intensive training for each batch. During the first period of this timeframe, the aspiring agripreneurs are gaining theoretical knowledge in Business Development, Value Addition, Marketing of agricultural products, Modern production, Finances and Accounting, Risk Management, etc. To make sure that the courses go above theory, each session is highly interactive, with a lot of exercises which are helping them practice and develop their skills. Most importantly, some training modules like Leadership and Self-Management also help them in self-development and changing their mindsets.

Session 1.1 (Agribusiness at a GLIMPSE) EK
Session 1.2 (Critical and Strategic Thinking) EK
Session 1.3 (Effective Planning for Sustainable Farming Business) EK
Session 1.4 (Generic model of a Business Plan) EK
Session 1.5 (Identifying Opp in Agribiz value chain) EK
Session 1.6 (Winning Business Plan For Agricultural Business) EK
Session 2.1 (Essential Business Skills in Farm Management)
Session 2.2 (Risk Management _ Business Continuity)
Session 2.3 (Business Environment)
Session 3.1(Creating a Financially Viable Business) EK
Session 3.2 (Fundamentals of business accounting)
Session 3.3 (Business Performance Ratios) EK
Session 3.4 (Financial Statement- Practical Session) EK
Session 3.5 (Financial Plan) EK
Session 3.6 (Financial Risk Management) EK
Session 3.7 (Attracting Bank Funding)
Session 4.1 (Writing and Presentation Skills)
Session 4.2 (Effective Sales and Marketing)
Session 4.3 (Marketing Plan) EK
Session 4.7 (Writing and Presentation Skills)
Session 5.1 (Principles of Self-Management)
Session 5.2 (High Potential Leadership)
Session 5.3 (Operational Excellence)
Session 5.4 (Enhancing Manpower Productivity)
Session 5.5 (Production Plan) EK

After the theoretical training, an agribusiness incubation timeline has been established for core enterprise operations. The aspiring agripreneurs develop core pilot enterprises where they acquire in-house experience. Each incubation consists of 3 core enterprises: modern farming, commodity marketing, and value-added processing. During this period, all interns are gaining experience within these.

Apart from having in-house experience as agripreneurs in the core pilot enterprises they are developing, each trainee also carries out internships in a successful agribusiness related to the domain of his future agribusiness. More importantly, an accent in put in Business Development, as the budding agripreneurs are mainly expected to develop bankable business plans which will be funded by partner financial institutions. It is worth mentioning that each incubation includes an outreach component to the surrounding farming communities, especially the youth.

Although the YABICs are in public and private institutions, it should be noted that they operate independently, according to tripartite win-win agreements between IITA, AVC_DP and the host institutions. Each of the incubation center is headed by a YABIC Coordinator  recruited by IITA and the AVC_DP and reporting to ENABLE Youth Cameroon.