Ambrose Dery, accompanied by D.G Kofi Egyir inspecting manufactured products by inmates
A total of 1,240 inmates and officers of the Ghana Prisons Service have been trained in Technical and Vocational Education and Entrepreneurial skills under the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP).
The beneficiaries were trained in various light manufacturing skills like soap and detergent making, grains, legumes and cereal processing and packaging, nuts and tubers processing and packaging, cosmetic making, and business development services.
This was to help the inmates achieve financial independence after their jail terms.
Deputy Finance Minister, John Ampontuah Kumah announced this at the launch of the Entrepreneurship For Restoration Programme in Accra.
According to him, the partnership between the Prisons Service and the NEIP is to ignite the innovative and entrepreneurial spirits of young people to departure from job-seeking to job ownership.
“In this effort, the government will give starter packs and kits to various prisons to enhance production. Our prisons should not be a space for only punishment but also rehabilitation, redemption, and restoration” he said.
Mr. Kumah added that, “By empowering inmates with vocational skills and entrepreneurial knowledge, we are not only equipping them for a brighter future but also fostering their reintegration into society as productive citizens”.
Minister for Interior, Ambrose Dery indicated that the prison service over the years has been unvalued and underestimated notwithstanding the essential role the service plays in Ghana’s criminal justice dispensation, hence the reason why the government has rolled out the entrepreneurship empowerment programme to equip the service.
He added that the launch of the programme will give hope to the families of inmates who feel orphaned and disenfranchised in the knowledge that their relations will spend their productive lives in prison.
“This programme will provide employment opportunity to the beneficiary inmates and ultimately reduce the chances of people living in prisons and reoffending and getting back to prison” he noted.
The Director General of Prisons, Isaac Kofi Egyir, indicated that NEIP initiatives are a major intervention in the rehabilitation drive of the prison service.
This according to him answers the many calls by the Interior Ministry for the service to prioritize the reformation and rehabilitation needs of inmates.
“The initiatives stands a chance of benefiting inmates with sustainable livelihood skills will help them remove criminal tendencies. This will prepare them for meaningful contributions to society once they are released,” he said.
He also added that the starter supplies will set prisons on the path to self-sustaining and income-generating enterprises.
The Chief Executive Officer, NEIP, Kofi Ofosu Nkansah reaffirmed his outfit’s commitment to equipping inmates with entrepreneurial skills is realized.
He also indicated that his team would collaborate with the Ghana Standards Authority, Food and Drugs Authority and other regulatory bodies for approval of the products manufactured by inmates.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke