Executives take a pose for the cameras with participants
The Management of the National Service Scheme (NSS) in partnership with MASLOC, NBSSI, Venture Capital and NELP among others has completed a weeklong intensive Poultry Entrepreneurial Training Programme for twenty of its graduates.
At the closing session held at the Conference room of the scheme on Monday, Mustapha Ussif, Executive Director of NSS who paid glowing tribute to the first trainees who were selected from various parts of the country opined that the new poultry farmers will each receive seed capitals amounting to Ghc20, 000 as flexible loans among other resources for the job.
The Executive Director was positive the PET programme will help create employment opportunities of about fifty people in the Poultry value chain each besides solving the perennial transition challenges into regular employment.
“The Scheme has prioritized entrepreneurship development for the start and will provide the relevant skills and expertise to them so that they would also extend these qualities to others in their areas of operations.
In addition, he stated that the NSS management to this effect has entered into a strategic partnership with the Songhai Group to establish a training hub for future personnel to develop the next generation of digital tools.
The Executive Director of National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Kosi A. Yankey, was happy that PET is an avenue to help solve graduate unemployment challenges.
According to her though the Poultry sector of the economy comes with some risks, government continues to place measures in place to curb such occurrences as disease attacks.
The General Manager, Venture Capital Trust Fund, Hamdiya Ismaila noted that it is very encouraging the rate at which many graduates have resolved to take jobs in the agricultural and technical sector.
She advised that though government has put measures to provide funding, technical and resource support, it is in the interest of the new farmers to start small and expand as the years roll by.
David Arthur, a participant from the Ashanti region indicated that participants received tution in Strategies in Agricultural Management with emphasis on poultry management, Sharing Best Practices and Market targeting among others.
He mentioned that their start up plan is to win the local market and expand into foreign markets.
By Solomon Ofori