The Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA) has inaugurated the National Soil to Security Campaign Team (SSC) to engage 12 million young Nigerian women in transformative agribusiness education.

POWA National President and Wife of the Inspector General of Police, Dr.  Elizabeth Egbetokun, inaugurated the national campaign team during the Police Officers’ Wives Associations' 61st anniversary celebration, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos State.

The initiative with active support from UNESCO REF Young Women in Agriculture (YWA) aimed at supporting the administration of President Bola Tinubu’s efforts at ensuring food security in the country.

Mrs. Egbetokun who doubles as the National Advocate for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Read and Earn Federation (UNESCO REF) Young Women in Agriculture (YWA) Initiative, disclosed that through the campaign young women would break-free from poverty by engaging in resilient, scalable agriculture that creates income, dignity, and national impact.

She noted: “The initiative also serves as a strategic response to the Federal Government’s emergency declaration on food security made on July 13, 2023.

“Through this campaign, we are enabling young women to break-free from poverty by engaging in resilient, scalable agriculture that creates income, dignity, and national impact,” Elizabeth Egbetokun said during the launch event.”

Mrs. Egbetokun in a statement issued Wednesday explained that the SSC Team operates as the official outreach and mobilisation engine under the UNESCO REF Strategic Intervention Programme – ALPHA (SIP-ALPHA) Framework, designed to advance food security, promote climate-smart agriculture, and deliver inclusive socioeconomic empowerment across all regions of Nigeria.

Highlighting the strategic support and national alignment of the programme, the POWA President noted that the YWA Initiative and SSC Campaign would directly contribute to Tinubu’s directive on food security and agribusiness transformation.

The POWA president noted that the Soil to Security Campaign Team would serve as the official national mobilization mechanism of the YWA Initiative.

According to her, The team would be responsible for coordinating outreach across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, engaging young women (ages 18–35) through sensitization, registration, and community activation as well as promoting agritech awareness, inclusive market access, and scalable impact.

“The programme aims to achieve training and certification of 12 million YWA Champions by 2030; creation of sustainable agribusiness ecosystems led by women and youth and expansion of domestic industrial inputs for packaging, textiles, and construction,” Mrs. Egbetokun said.

On his part, the UNESCO REF President and National Coordinator, Young Women in Agriculture Nigeria, Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan, said the future of food is no longer buried beneath the soil, it is engineered through knowledge, equity, and innovation.

He added that with the launch of the SSC Team, Nigeria demonstrates not only commitment to sustainable agriculture, but also to harnessing the transformative power of young women as architects of a resilient economy and peaceful society.