By: Lamarana Jallow
Communication Officer, MoYS
Honorable Bakary Y. Badjie, Minister of Youth and Sports hasexpressed his Ministry’s desire to see more young people who are job creators instead of being job seekers.
Minister Badjie was speaking at the graduation of the 10th batch of Gambia Songhai Initiative Centre (GSI) students held in Chamen, North Bank Region.
The mixed farming/Agro-forestry training and production project funded by the government with support from UNDP over the weekend graduated 40 young people, 25 females and fifteen males. The graduated students already completed their mandatory 12 months of residential theory and practical training at the centre.
The GSI aimed at training youth, women, migrant returnees, and those marginalized on integrated/farming systems, agroforestry, poultry production management, animal husbandry, horticulture/vegetable garden, cash crop production, food processing, biogas and business planning and entrepreneurship skill training.
Honorable Badjie said since the UNDP partial funding ended in 2021, the Ministry has been using its development budget to maintain the center and training of young people because youth empowerment, especially in agriculture is a priority for the government.
“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,” Minister Badjie emphasised.
The Minister, therefore, urged the graduated students to make use of the opportunities offered by the National Enterprise Development Initiatives (NEDI) under his Ministry, the Roots project under the Ministry Of Agriculture, and the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) under the Ministry of Gender for support on startup capital on their desired program and future endeavour.
Mr. Mbye Saine, Project Coordinator of the GSI gave a brief history of the project, saying the initiatives came from Benin and were introduced in The Gambia with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Since its inception, he went on, the project has graduated 600 young people, the majority of whom are females.
“If we are able to equip our women, it means the backbone of the nation is meaningful,” Saine noted.
He disclosed that since 2018, the program has been funded by the Government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) with some support from UNDP.
Participants for the program, he said, are drawn from all seven (7) regions and feeding, accommodation, stipend, little start-up capital, post-graduate monitoring, and coaching are all taken care of.
He highlighted the importance of the project and said the initiatives are against the backdrop of irregular migration.
The Project coordinator commended the Ministry for the continuous support to the young people of The Gambia and called on other donor partners to emulate UNDP and come to their aid for more progress.
Deputy Permanent Secretary, Alhagie Nyangado deputizing the Minister of Agriculture said his Ministry is interested in supporting youth who venture into agriculture.
“If you can produce enough food, it wouldn’t be difficult to make a saving,” he informed the graduated students.
Representative of UNDP Residential Representative LaminDarboe said UNDP is committed to supporting the Government of The Gambia through its various interventions to empower youth and women to improve their lives and livelihood through their support to GSI, NYSS, and Youth Connekt at the NYC.
According to him, 10 of the best among the graduated students will benefit from a grant worth D100,000 (one hundred thousand dalasis) for start-up capital to improve their productive and financial capacities, and help them navigate the transition from skills development to employment.
To strengthen institutional capacity and support digitalization, he said, the UNDP accelerator lab provided 6 desktop computers to the GSI for information, telecommunications, and communication classes.