News monitored on the State TV reports that officials also used the occasion to inaugurate Songhai-Gambia modern project at the Chamen Agricultural Training and Seeds Multiplication Centre in the North Bank Region.
Funded by the UNDP, the project is anchored on poverty reduction, downsizing on employment in the ranks of young people as well as the Vision 2016 objectives.
“The project is designed as an innovative platform for a broad multi-partnership programme to support the activities of the government of The Gambia in promoting access of youth, women and men to appropriate agricultural business entrepreneurial, leadership and management skills required for effective participation, integration of wealth and investment in socio-economically viable agricultural businesses enterprises in every community in The Gambia,” Musa Mbaye, director of Planning and Programmes at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, said.
The Songhai-Gambia project is a result of the third young people who were sent to Benin for a six month long training on entrepreneurial skills and agricultural development. The one day meeting in North Bank Region is set to prepare the ground for the solid take-off of the full project by focusing on partnership and resource mobilisation, achievement and rehabilitation of facilities for the implementation of the initiative.
The project was later handed over by the minister of Agriculture to the ministry of Youth and Sports, an institution which serves as the implementing agency of the project.
The Agriculture minister Solomon Owens said he is “delighted” to hand over the Chamen Training and Seed Multiplication Centre on behalf of the president.
The Youth and Sports minister Alieu Jammeh said he is honoured on behalf of the government and “by extension on behalf of the young people both men and women of The Gambia” to receive the project.
The minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Kebba Touray assured his ministry’s continuous support and collaboration in meeting the overall objectives of the project.
Touray said: “Finance will ensure agriculture is given priority.”
The project is a five-year initiative worth over $36Million divided into two phases. The first phase of the project is seeking to stimulate economic growth, create employment opportunities and increase food security all in a bid to alleviate poverty in the country.
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