GEPA Trains 100 Youth In Agriculture And Crafts For Export
The Management of Ghana Export Promotion Authority has taken 100 young men and women through a three month orientation program. The program is dubbed Youth Enterprise Programme. This will lead to mentoring by some seasoned various entrepreneurs to guide these youth to be well equiped in their chosen fields. After the three months orientatation training , the trainees who have already selected their own area of interest will be assigned a mentored in various part of the country primarily in agriculture and crafts that will enable them export their produce and products for export after their mentorship. This will enable the trainees to go about their jobs well,m without much toil. GEPA has secured acres of lands, basic farm implements , token sums and seedlings to serve as a start up capital and aids for the trainees free of charge. At a ceremony to dispatch the trainees to their various mentors , the Deputy CEO of GEPA ,Mr Daniel Dentu asked the trainees to live up to expectation by rising to the occasion and later handed over some basic farm implements. According to him GEPA has trained first batch of 20 youth in the same area and are doing very well .Besides their success will spur on the organisation to train more youth to do more. Mr Dentu told the youth comprising 55 males and 45 ladies help GEPA justify their enterprise to boost export of primary products in Ghana . GEPA he said recorded 3.2 bn USD in foreign exchange in 2022 and they intend to record 27b USD in 2030 to reduce the pressure on the local currency. The deputy CEO stressed the need to create employment and motivate the youth to till the land and pave the way for them to enter into the export market. He emphasised that the export market has a huge market opportunity and the youth can capitalise on it to reduce unemployment malaise plaguing the country . He said Ghana as an Agriculture country must take sdvantsge of the youth to reap in more foregn exchange to cushion the Cedi .In this regard , the organisation will guide the would be entrepreneurs to till the land, supply them with requisite seedlings through their mentors to address any challenges envisaged . As a result the organisation will monitor and evaluate the efforts of the selected trainees to offset any difficulty they would face in course of their duty . The trainees were given seeds like ; pawpaw , avocado,cashew, sheah butter, pineapple, leather work, basketry, sculpture,smock weaving ,etc. The trainees chose their own place of convinience and their mentors may provide them accommodation and meals. However in case of absence of these incentives, the organisation will step in to support the unfortunate trainees. After the six months mentorship, the organisation will set them up with start up capital and guide them in how to export the produce and products through the commodity market exchange programme . The trainees thanked GEPA and its management for the opportunity offered them and they promised to hit the mark to justify their training. They called on the country’s youth to turn to the land since that’s where the money is.
Source :Nana Poku /johnawuniktv@gmail.com
