National Youth Authority signs MoU

The National Youth Authority (NYA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tractor/B-BOVID to train the youth in agro-business in order to provide sustainable livelihood and income generating venture for them.

In view of this, Tractor/B-BOVID would use its alternative livelihood centre at Kejebil in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, to train youth in agriculture-entrepreneurship, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and encourage the youth to embrace agriculture as a form of business and a career path.

Mrs Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, National Coordinator of the NYA initialled the agreement on behalf of the government while Mr Issa Ouedraogo, Chief Executive Officer of B-BOVID, signed for the company, at a ceremony at Kejebil.

She said students from Abura Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institute would also benefit from the training regime.

Mrs Attionu entreated the youth interested in agriculture to take advantage of the programme.

She said the MoU was necessitated as a result of increasing youth unemployment, which has become a serious challenge.

She noted that since crude oil exploration is being undertaken in the Region, there is the likelihood that, the youth would abandon agricultural production, which could result in the popular “Dutch Disease”.

Mrs Attioinu said the partnership would therefore offer the youth alternative livelihood in agriculture so that the Region would maintain its status as the food basket of the nation.

She therefore appealed to the corporate bodies in the country to support the project in order to ensure food security.

The MoU provides a precursor to the NYA institutionalisation of a National Youth Empowerment Project dubbed: “Youth Sustainable Agro-Enterprise.”

Mr Ouedraogo said Ghana has the potential of producing enough food to feed the entire West African Sub-region and therefore entreated the youth to take agriculture business seriously.

He noted that the company believes in integrated farming system whereby it buys raw materials from farmers, process them in order to add value and then share the profit with them.

Mr Ouedraogo said the potential for agriculture, as a real means of livelihood security remains largely untap because people do not have the expertise and resources to effect the needed change.

B-BOVID, an acronym for Building Business on Values Integrity and Dignity is a Ghanaian agro-business that is promoting a new model of social inclusive commercial farming, which combines innovative agricultural practices, ecological farming, food processing, ICT agriculture, biodiversity and fish farming.