By Mildred Siabi-Mensah/Gladys Abaka
Sekondi, Nov. 21, GNA – Some 26 Persons with Disabilities and other identifiable groups have received a grant amount of GH284, 290.00 to start-up businesses in Agriculture.
The number, was among the total of 240 people trained, made up of 164 males and 76 females under the Skills Development Training of the EU-funded Twin-Cities in Sustainable Partnership Project (TCSPP).
The project is impacting the lives of unemployed youth, women, and return migrants across the Metropolis.
The trainees were taken through four-month classroom and practical training sessions, to form groups and register as social enterprises focusing on crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture, special training sessions on entrepreneurship and bookkeeping.
Mr. Abdul Mumin Issah, the Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer at the presentation of the grant amount said the beneficiaries had successfully gone through the urban agriculture training and the selection process to receive startups to establish their social enterprises.
Eight of the beneficiaries were selected from 14 applicants, who successfully sailed through the two-stage evaluation process and field inspection of their proposed sites.
The applicants were to propose solutions to address some of the challenges defined by the TCSPP to create job opportunities in the value chain of crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture.
The MCE said the criteria for determining the exact amount of financial support for an applicant were based on the analysis of a detailed description of the proposed activities, objectives, expected beneficiaries, outputs, costs and site location.
The intervention areas were small irrigation systems for smallholder vegetable farming, vegetable seedlings, small farming implements, materials for homemade greenhouse construction, fingerlings, feed, and materials for catfish rearing; poultry and rabbits’ production.
Similarly, agribusiness software and mobile applications to address the value-chain gap and web-based multi-stakeholder platforms to facilitate information flows and business transactions between suppliers and buyers were also eligible.
The beneficiaries included; the Ghana Federation for Disability Organization Sekondi-Takoradi local, Catholic Special Vocation School, Egyam Children’s Home, Urban Organic Limited, Inchaban Love for all Co-Operative Agric Business Farming and Marketing Society Limited, Sekkoo Glory Lands Co-operative Vegetable and Aquaculture Farming.
The Rest are Marketing Society Limited, Whindo Unique Co-Operative Agric Farmers and Marketing Society Limited, Twin City Smart Women Co-operative Vegetables, Poultry and Aquaculture Farming and Marketing Society Limited.
The agricultural social enterprise project was also in line with the Government of Ghana’s agenda and the European Union’s commitment to address the challenges of unemployment, environmental degradation, food security and to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on livelihoods.
He said the alarming rate of unemployment among the youth in the country could be attributed to some recorded cases of armed robbery, stealing, illicit use of drugs and irregular migration to Europe through the desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
This, National Security had described in Ghana as a national security threat.
Under the TCSPP, an Urban Agriculture Demonstration Farm had been constructed to provide practical training in urban agriculture technologies since the beginning of the project in 2022 in crop production, animal husbandry and aquaculture.
Mr. Isaac Aidoo, the TCSPP, urged the beneficiaries to be faithful stewards of the amount received and work hard to justify the investor confidence in the Metropolitan Area.
“Like the parable of the talents, I expect all of you to go out to your field and cultivate, nurture it to grow and multiply the resources for other generations after you”.
GNA