13 female graduate entrepreneurs mainly from the country’s colleges of agriculture have received mentorship and coaching to start their agribusiness venture as part of a collaboration between the Technical Education Development for Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) and the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Global Community Service Fund (GCSF).
The workshop supported by the Colleges of Agriculture Agribusiness Incubation Hub (CAAIHub), is to help secure special support and funding for female graduates through the student business plan competition program with a significant contingent of female students from the agricultural colleges in Ejura and Damongo and the University of Ghana’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme (UGIEP).
Board Chairman for the Agri-Business Incubation Hub for the Agricultural Colleges, Prof. George Oduro Nkansah is optimistic the broadening of such training could help tackle import shortfalls in the country and help in addressing job creation challenges.
“We want to build their capacity in terms of the best practices that they can use to scale their business and then they will become bigger enterprises and will create jobs that become sustainable.”, he told the media on the sidelines of the workshop.
On her part, Co-lead Global Community Service Project and Professor of animal science at the University of Saskatchewan, Professor Mary Buhr described the enthusiasm as encouraging.
“My experience is that Ghana has enormous potential and people are really ready to take up and make things better for themselves.”, she told Starr News.
“I see that there is a problem, it’s difficult to mechanize but our young people, are very keen on learning new ways of doing things. They are also keen on being even more than just producers and it’s a place that’s the future.”, she concluded.
The GCSF is a collaboration of USask, the University of Ghana’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme (UGIEP), and the University of Missouri Assistance Program-Ghana (UMAP-Ghana) in a bid to harness essential agribusiness incubation skills to develop educational, mentoring, training and coaching programs leading to jobs, employment and wealth creation by and for young women.
Specifically, the partnership is piloting female initiatives, coaching and mentoring programs, and creating awareness of female agripreneurial capacity at two of six agricultural colleges to enhance female participation and leadership in agriculturally focused entrepreneurial activities; the programme is already extending to the other 4 colleges.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Edem Kojo