Six ex-corps members of the Gambia National Youth Service
Scheme (NYSS) have completed a month-long training on various aspects of
agricultural production at the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, the capital of Benin.
The six (Cherno Barry, Fatoumata Bah, Mot Lamin Bah,
Abdoulie Sallah, Basirou Boye and Saibana Camara) are among seventy-one youths drawn
from Member countries of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS), as part of an ECOWAS capacity building programme to encourage and
empower Community youth for self- employment.
The training was organized by the Ouagadougou-based ECOWAS
Youth and Sports Development Centre in collaboration with the Songhai Centre,
one of the regional centres of excellence recognised by the sub-regional
economic bloc for youth development.
“The training for which 287 youths, comprising 167 male and
120 females, have benefited was launched five years ago as an experimental
programme with 15 trainees from the 15 ECOWAS Member States to enable youths
contribute to regional food security,” a September 23 statement from ECOWAS
said. “Its success encouraged ECOWAS to sponsor six trainees from each of the
12 participating countries for the fifth edition.”
At the closing
ceremony on Friday, the Director of the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development
Centre, Mr. Francis Chuks Njoaguani, charged the participants to optimize the
benefit of the training in order to realize a future of their dream.
Statistics from the International Labour organization (ILO) showed
that 72 percent of young people live on less than an average of two US dollars
a day; constituting approximately 60 percent of the jobless population, mostly
disadvantaged youth from countries coming out of crises and young ladies.
In response to these challenges, Mr. Njoaguani said ECOWAS
was taking concrete steps to address youth issues and pledged the institution’s
commitment to improve the lives of young people.
He assured that ECOWAS would follow up on the individual
progress of the grandaunts in their respective Member States as part of the
process of evaluating the programme and urged the beneficiaries to send in
their evaluations in order to enrich the training.
In his remarks,
the Secretary General of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Benin, Mr. Martin
Alowanou Lougbegnon, stated that the youth constitute a critical segment of the
ECOWAS population as the most active.
While noting that the training was to enable the youth take
charge of their social, professional and economic integration as well as
improve their well-being, Mr. Lougbegnon stated that the Songhai
training was part of the strategy to ensure their participation in the
construction of the ECOWAS Community and inculcate in them an entrepreneurial
spirit.
The Head of the
Economics Department of the Songhai Centre, Mr. Guy Loueke, also exhorted the
beneficiaries to justify their training and become role models for other young
people in the region.
When they took their
turn, the youths through their
representatives, Mr. Diohou Achille of Benin
(Francophone), Miss Sebastiao Bangazui of Guinea Bissau (Lusophone) and Mr.
Abdulsalam Sulaiman of Nigeria
(Anglophone), assured ECOWAS and other stakeholders of their readiness to
succeed and make the region proud of their investment in youths.
Author: Modou S. Joof For The Voice Newspaper
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