By Fatou Saho
The Minister for Youth and Sports, Bakary Y. Badjie, has said that, as a ministry, they want to see more young people who are job creators and not job seekers.
Minister Badjie made this statement on Wednesday at the 10th graduation of the Gambia Songhai Initiative (GSI) centre in Chamen, North Bank Region.
He added that: “We are more motivated by the numbers of youths we meet after they graduate from GSI, and they narrate their stories of how much the GSI benefited them and how it helped change their lives and that of their families”.
The Initiative aims to train youth, women, migrant returnees and those marginalized on integrated/ farming system, agroforestry, poultry production management, animal husbandry, horticulture/ vegetable garden, cash crop production, food processing bio gas and business planning and entrepreneurship skill training.
Hon. Badjie urged the graduating students to make use of the opportunities.
For his part, Mbye Saine, the project coordinator of the GSI, said the project was first funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has graduated 600 young people, mostly women since its inception in the Gambia.
“If we are able to equip our women, it means the backbone of nation is meaningful,” Saine noted.
The representative of UNDP, Lamin Darboe, assured the gathering that they will continue their support to empower women and youth.
Mr Darboe said ten out of the 40 graduates will benefit from a grant worth one hundred thousand dalasi to use as start-up capital. “To improve their productive and financial capacities to help them navigate the transition from skills development to employment and strengthen institutional capacity and support digitalization”.
