By Patrick Biddah
Over 25, 000 Ghanaian youth selected from across the country, have received financial support from the National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Programme (NEIP) .
The amount which ranges between Ghc10, 000 and Ghc20, 000, is to help these beneficiaries advance their innovation in agriculture production .
Under the Ghana Cares “Obaatan Pa” programme, the 25,000 youth, were randomly selected from 40,000 applicants .
At a ceremony to disburse cheques to the beneficiaries in Accra on August 10, 2023, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Programme ( NEIP) , Mr Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, said the overall aim is to assist the youth become self employed while employing others.
The disbursement, he further noted is government ‘s deliberate programme to provide the platform which will make it fertile for import substation of certain crops some of which includes online and tomatoes.
According to Mr Nkansah Ofosu, there are lot of advantages the youth are going to get from the programme since there is a market for exporting to other African countries which makes the programme viable.
While, some of the beneficiaries, have existing farms for which they are expected to expand, others with these financial support given them will leverage on the humble start ups which did not flourish because of inadequate funds.
With the financial support, the CEO was hopeful that the needed fertilizers, tools and technology can be applied and expected to result in more yields particularly from those in the cultivation of maize , sorghum, cassava , poultry and livestock.
“ The financial support is not the end they will see from us. We would continue to provide coaching and mentoring services to them “, he assured.
Mr Ofosu Nkansah, revealed the percentage distribution of funds to the each of the crops as 30percent to maize , 20percent to cassava, 35percent to poultry, 10percent to agro processing and 3percent to agric technology.
Despite all these major intervention in the youth in agriculture programme, the CEO announced that there will be an enclave programme in rice production soon.
“This programme will be aggressively pursued and already the government is building hostels which will help the youth stay in the farms to work”, he stressed.
On her part, a representative from the Ministry of Finance, Madam Gifty Nkansah Sekyere, urged the youth to take advantage of the programme.
In her words, the key component of the Ghana Care “ Obatan Pa “ is to push the transformational agenda of the government in the agriculture sector in order to advance food security.
