An entrepreneurial youth summit has been held to expose young people to opportunities in the agricultural sector and how they can use them to create wealth for themselves and jobs for others. It was attended by about 200 young people, youth-led organisations and young people engaged in any form of agribusiness from selected districts in the Northern Region.
It featured sessions such as youth voices where young people, who excelled within agribusiness space, shared their stories with the participants, access to finance where they were exposed to financial packages, targeting young people and persons living with disabilities, and young business matchmaking, including avenues for networking, mentorship and skills building.
It was organised by the United States Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and supported by Feed the Future Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity.
The summit aimed to increase youth engagement and interest in agriculture, create good employment opportunities, help reduce poverty, and ensure sustainable agricultural-led economic growth in the northern part of the country.
Madam Zinabu Abdulai, Director, Gender and Social Inclusion at USAID MSR Activity, speaking during the summit in Tamale, said the youth entrepreneurial summit formed part of efforts to stimulate training and mentorship and facilitate improved access to productive economic resources for young people.
Madam Abdulai said: “Considering how important agriculture is to the economy and development, it is crucial that we harness the opportunities within the space to increase the young people’s participation in agribusinesses. So, today, we assemble about 200 young people to acquire the knowledge, skills and the knowledge base on what they are supposed to contribute to building the northern sector.”
The summit focused on solutions that offered new opportunities for youth entrepreneurship along agricultural value chains and technological solutions that supported youth-related innovation, and modern agricultural production.
Beyond training youth entrepreneurs, the summit was expected to help youth develop a better understanding of available resources to support their interests and activities in the agricultural sector and expand their regional and district networks linking with key programmes that supported youth in agriculture.
Madam Abdulai advised the participants to stay focused, identify critical opportunities within the agricultural value chain, and expand the network they were building to generate income and create employment opportunities.
Hikmatu Kadri, Founder, Agromat Solutions Limited, said the summit was of immense benefit to the youth as it encouraged them to explore the productive value chains of agriculture to generate wealth and address unemployment in the country.
She lauded the presentations on financial packages available at some financial institutions for young people and persons living with disabilities to venture into agribusiness.
Joshua Amehi, Business Development Strategist at Triple-A Analytics, and farmer, who shared his experience with the participants, advised them to reflect on the issues discussed at the summit and take up agriculture as business for food security and income.
Source: GNA