By Dennis Peprah
Koase, (Bono), Oct. 24, GNA-The Accelerating Change Through Innovation in Agricultural TVET (ACTIVATE) Project being funded by the Mastercard Foundation is offering an alternative livelihood empowerment training for 350 vulnerable young people in the Sunyani West Municipality.
The Foundation with support from the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is funding the project implementation, with Mimshack Co-operative Cashew Farmers and Marketing Society Limited (Mimshack CFMS Ltd), a farmer-based organization serving as a key institutional contractor and training service provider.
Between the ages of 15 to 35 years, the beneficiaries, mostly young females, Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), internally displaced persons and refugees.
Personnel of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other experts are taking them through grasscutter and rabbit rearing, snail and mushroom production and beekeeping.
The beneficiaries were picked from Sereso, Wabrase, Tumamiayanko, Aprakukrom, Boffourkrom, Koase, Nkawdom and Morokrom in the Municipality of the Bono Region for the training and to better their socio-economic livelihoods.
Speaking at an induction ceremony for the beneficiaries, held at Koase, a farming community in the Municipality, Mr Amos Kwasi Bintir, the Executive Director of the Mimshack CFMS Ltd mentioned that the cooperative is mandated to train the learners in two major trade areas of cashew agro processing and financial literacy agribusiness skills.
He said on completion the beneficiaries would be provided with start-up tools for each trade area to set their own businesses and constructed cashew agro processing shed for each center.
Mr Bintir explained that the ACTIVATE Project focused on creating opportunities in the agricultural sector for vulnerable people.
He said the training would provide job-ready skills that meet real-world demands, saying that the project aimed at empowering the beneficiaries with industry-recognized competencies, enhancing their employability and contributing to economic growth in the agricultural sector and beyond.
The project is an 18-month contractual agreement from October 2026 to December 2027, saying that Mimshack would play a pivotal role in delivering decentralized, community-based competency training and transition-to-work support for 2,000 young beneficiaries in 2026.
Dr John Ayisi, a retired agriculturist and the lead facilitator, lauded the project, saying its implementation would provide ready job opportunities for the members of the project implementing communities.
He advised the beneficiaries to take the training seriously, urging them to be time conscious and disciplined.
Mr Cletus Darko, the Assembly Member for the Koase Electoral Area, commended the cooperative and its partners for the opportunity and expressed the hope that the project implementation would benefit more of the vulnerable young people in the area.
Mr Dognekoh Atta Kwasi Snr, the Presiding Member of the Sunyani West Municipal Assembly equally represented Mr Asante Boateng, the Sunyani West Municipal Chief Executive and Mrs Millicent Yeboah Amankwaa, the Member of Parliament (MP) of Parliament for Sunyani West Constituency.
He noted that the project implementation aligned with the government’s efforts towards job creation and poverty reduction.
Mr Dognekor affirmed the assembly commitment to support the project for the local communities to derive the optimum benefits and commended the cooperative and its partners.
Portia Abawono, 18 years and one of the beneficiaries selected from Morokorm told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that she was highly excited about the opportunity created for her to learn grasscutter rearing.
She called on the project implementers to extend it to benefit more of the young girls in the area.
Another beneficiary, Abdulai Seidu, 25 years, also from Morokrom also expressed his appreciation to the Cooperative, saying that the grasscutter rearing would empower him to support his upkeep and that of his family.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Dennis Peprah
Email address: [email protected]