106 Young entrepreneurs receive $236,460 business grant
A total of 106 young entrepreneurs engaged in micro-businesses across key agricultural value chains have received a grant of $236,460.85 to start and re-engineer their respective businesses.
This was after they had successfully completed an intensive six-week entrepreneurship training programme designed to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
The training involved basic bookkeeping, financial management, digital literacy, simple sales and marketing, gender and safeguarding, among others.
It was conducted under the Harnessing Agricultural Productivity and Prosperity for Youth (HAPPY) programme, which granted them access to entrepreneurship training, grant support and market linkages.
Hundreds of the beneficiary entrepreneurs were young women, making up 94 per cent of the entire class.
The businesses they operate are in areas such as rice, soya, poultry and tomato production.
Out of the number, 51 focused on soya, 41 on poultry, seven on rice, and four on tomato.
Additionally, three agri-tech micro-businesses also completed the programme, highlighting the initiative’s strong emphasis on innovation and the adoption of agricultural technologies.
The HAPPY Programme is a four-year initiative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Agri-Impact Limited, an agribusiness firm, to create 326,000 dignified job opportunities for young people across Ghana.
The programme focuses on four core value chains, namely poultry, rice, soybean and tomato, and also prioritises support for young women and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Graduation ceremony
At a ceremony to graduate the first cohort of 106 young entrepreneurs in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Lead, Agri-Impact Limited, Nana Kofi Riverson, said the project had the objective to support young people who lacked resources to engage in productive ventures within the focus areas of the programme.
“This micro grant targeted start-ups on the programme to enable the young people to start their own businesses,” he said, stressing that “the funds are to help the young entrepreneurs to acquire critical equipment to sustainably run their businesses”.
The event was on the theme: “Pathways to Prosperity; Highlighting the Impact of Incubation Training and Grant Support”.
Connection
The Programme Director, TechnoServe, Frank Obiora Mgbemena, said the beneficiaries had been provided with microgrants and inputs to help in re-engineering their business ventures towards improving the sector.
He stated that the training was useful for the participants, as it also enabled them to connect with their peers who were engaged in other trades within the agricultural value chain, adding that “the peer-to-peer learning helped them learn from each other towards the growth of their trades”.
“Our commitment is that for the entire life of the programme, we will continue to support them with aftercare support in terms of coaching and mentoring, as well as networking events,” he said.
Some of the participants expressed gratitude for being beneficiaries of the support, which exposed them to new things that would enable them to do the right thing to grow their businesses.
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