GYEEDA to train youth in entrepreneurial knowledge & skills in poultry industry


The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Development Agency, GYEEDA, under Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is partnering Akate Farms and Trading Company Limited in Kwabre East District of Ashanti to train the youth to acquire entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in the poultry industry. 

The beneficiary youth will undergo a maximum of two years of intensive training after which they would be linked to the Youth Enterprise Support for financial assistance to enable them to set themselves up in the poultry business or expand their existing poultry enterprises.
 
Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Alhaji Baba Jamal and Head of GYEEDA, Kobby Acheampong have toured Akate Farms complex at Bosore near Kumasi to assess the company’s readiness to undertake the training. Akate Farms is currently the largest poultry farm in Ghana. 

The company, which has branches in Wamase and Akyease both in the Ashanti Region has 200
thousand birds and produces none thousand crates of eggs a day, with a hatchery that produces 80 thousand chicks per day. 

It also produces five thousand day old guinea fowls, 100 tons of feed per day and has external markets in Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin.
 
Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Alhaji Baba Jamal said government is ready to partner the private sector but this will be done with accountability and probity. 

He pledged his Ministry’s readiness to ensure adequate funding and credit facilities for poultry farmers throughout the country to reduce importations of chickens and make Ghana a net exporter of poultry products in the coming years. 

Alhaji Baba Jamal said currently the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Export Development and Investment Fund are rolling out measures to adequately support poultry and other farmers to increase production and make Ghana self-sufficient. 

The Head of GYEEDA, Kobby Acheampong, announced strategies to collaborate effectively with emphasis on Public-Private partnerships in the area of education, research, commercial activities and projects. 

The Managing Director of Akate Farms, Alhaji Abdul Salam Akate hoped the process would enable students to have practical training and learn more about commercial farming initiatives.

GBC