AGFUND to expand development initiatives in Africa, seeks Nigerian partners — Saudi Prince

The Chairman of Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, says the fund is seeking partnerships with governments, local organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to expand its development initiatives across Africa, including Nigeria.

The Saudi Arabia Prince made the remarks on Wednesday during a press conference with journalists in Armenia.

When PREMIUM TIMES asked what specific investments or programmes is AGFUND willing to prioritise in Nigeria to support young entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers and community-led development, and how can Nigeria access this support, the Saudi Arabian Prince said the organisation is looking to work with local partners to identify development challenges in different African countries and develop solutions tailored to their needs.

The AGFUND Chairman also disclosed the organisation’s development priorities, including efforts to tackle unemployment by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs and financial inclusion initiatives.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, continues to grapple with the unemployment challenge, amid government efforts to create sufficient employment opportunities for its growing population, particularly young people entering the labour market to address the soaring rate of young talents leaving the country, which is commonly known as “japa” in the Nigerian parlance.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s official unemployment rate is pegged within the range of 4.3 to 4.9 per cent. Although under the older NBS methodology used prior to 2023, the reported unemployment rate was much higher, it was about 33.3 per cent in late 2020. A vast majority of the Nigerian workforce operates in the informal sector, with the informal employment rate estimated at roughly 92.8 per cent.

On Wednesday, a Nigerian climate technology and agritech startup, D-Olivette Labs, emerged as one of four winners of the 2025 Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development, receiving $200,000 for its clean-energy innovation.

Addressing unemployment

In his response to PREMIUM TIMES reporter’s question, Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud explained that the organisation is seeking to help address unemployment by supporting entrepreneurs rather than relying on governments to absorb an increasing number of graduates into public-sector employment.

“When we talk about unemployment, you know, most of these countries, some of them are our countries as well, whoever graduates is always looking for a government position,” the representative said.

“Government position, they would say it’s much safer, it’s much secure, etc., but we want to stay away from these government positions because government will reach a day where they don’t have any more positions for new employees.”

The representative said AGFUND was exploring ways to help small businesses and entrepreneurs grow, including through financial inclusion banks that provide microloans and share knowledge with beneficiaries.

“So, I think our part of what we’re doing is we’re trying to help SMEs. We’re trying to help entrepreneurs,” the representative said.

The initiative, the representative explained, is intended to help low-income individuals establish businesses, expand their activities and eventually employ other people.

“So, these poor people, whoever they are, wherever they are, tomorrow they will become employers. They will have employees. And this is the effect that we want,” the representative said.

Microfinance and local partnerships

The AGFUND Chair said its approach builds on a mission that began in 2006–2007 and is now being expanded further into Africa.

The organisation’s representative said AGFUND was established to support development initiatives that other funding institutions might not prioritise.

The prince cited the organisation’s work on financial inclusion and microfinance banks, linked to the late Prince Talal, the founder of AGFUND, and Professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank.

He said the organisation was now seeking partnerships with government institutions and NGOs to identify specific needs and develop interventions that could help communities become economically self-reliant.

According to the him, expanding these initiatives would require an understanding of the differences in culture, regulations and development priorities across African countries.

The representative also cautioned against focusing exclusively on large-scale projects, arguing that smaller pilot initiatives could provide a more practical route to sustainable development.

“Sometimes we’re looking for the big projects, the mega-projects, the giga-projects. How many projects we’ve seen in the region have not succeeded? How many projects we’ve seen in Africa, for example, they have not succeeded?” the representative said.

“The aspirations are very big and the dreams are very big, but sometimes you need a pilot project.”

The representative said AGFUND tests initiatives on a smaller scale before expanding successful projects, with adjustments to reflect the circumstances of different regions.

Africa’s development challenges

Additionally, Prince Abdulaziz also highlighted the varying economic and social challenges confronting African countries, including instability, economic difficulties and declining global funding for development.

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The representative said these challenges made it necessary for African countries to build on existing institutions and development platforms rather than continually creating new ones.

Referring to the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the representative said the continent was entering a new phase of its long-term development vision and needed to align existing efforts to address persistent problems such as unemployment.

“How can we align ourselves with whatever already exists? Why do we need to always create new platforms, find new solutions? No, the solutions are there. The platforms are there,” the representative said.

“All we need to do is just realign to stop having unemployment, if we can.”

AGFUND’s proposed expansion could create opportunities for Nigerian development organisations, government agencies and NGOs to explore partnerships aimed at improving access to finance and supporting entrepreneurship.

However, the organisation did not specify the amount of funding it plans to commit to Nigeria, the number of beneficiaries it expects to reach or a timeline for implementing new initiatives in the country.