The Deputy Public Affairs Officer, United States (US) Consulate-General, Lagos, Mrs. Jennifer Foltz, has lauded the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, for being a great institution that has continued to contribute to national development. She made this disclosure during the Fulbright Programme and 75th Anniversary Lecture, organised by FUNAAB in collaboration with US Consulate-General. The topic of the lecture, covered by FUNAAB Radio 89.5FM and held at the Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial Building, was: “Applying for the US Government Fully-Funded Fulbright Programmes in Nigeria: Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Programme”. The envoy stated that agriculture was an important sector of the economy with high potentials for employment generation, poverty reduction, and food security. According to Mrs. Foltz, a beautiful campus like that of FUNAAB with large arable lands and favourable weather conditions was very suitable for agricultural practices.

“No nation can survive if they neglect to input youths in the economic performance, wealth creation, poverty alleviation, and governance”, she added. The Vice-Chancellor of FUNAAB, Prof. Kolawole Salako, appreciated the US team for choosing FUNAAB as one of the universities recognised and visited for the 75th anniversary. He said in “FUNAAB as a University of Agriculture, we keep making sure that we train our students to become agricultural entrepreneurs and we are happy that many of our students, who have graduated, are already giving back to the University. The Vice-Chancellor was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Bolanle Akeredolu-Ale. Meanwhile, one of the guest speakers at the event, AfricanFarmer Mogaji, said there was the need for Nigeria to start adding value to all agricultural products to make the nation work. He stressed that the country needed to move from being a consumer to a producer. “We must have a value chain in the country”, he added.