Comparative Assessment of N-Power Agro Programme on Youth Empowerment in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria

The study compared N-Power Agro programme implementation on youths’ empowerment in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria. Purposive and cluster random sampling techniques were used to select 180 samples for the study. Data were collected from primary source, while percentage standard deviation and mean statistic were used for data analysis. The findings showed that the beneficiaries had high level of participation in the programme’s activities in Delta and Edo states with grand mean of 3.66 and 3.52, respectively. The programme brought great changes in the beneficiaries’ livelihood in both States such as reduced their poverty, improved their working experience, increased their ICT proficiency, influenced their satisfaction of basic needs, provided adequate skills that made them to be employers of labour, and improved their income above their previous level. Delay in payment of stipend to participants, long distance to area of primary assignment, shortage of extension agents, mismanagement of funds, insufficient information about the programme, bribery and corruption among staff, overbearing hands of politicians in the programme, poor funding, and pattern of recruitment of the participants were the serious challenges to implementation of the programme in Delta and Edo States. It is recommended that government should increase the awareness campaign on importance of the programme as a solution to poverty, and also ensure prompt and timely payment of the stipends to beneficiaries of the programme.