Minister Badjie was speaking at the 10th graduation of the Gambia Songhai Initiative Centre (GSI) in Chamen, North Bank Region.
The mixed farming/Agro-forestry training and production project funded by the government with support from UNDP over the weekend graduated 40 young people, 25 females and fifteen males. The graduated students have already completed their mandatory 12 months of residential theory and practical training at the centre.
The GSI aims to train youth, women, migrant returnees, and those marginalised on integrated/farming systems, agroforestry, poultry production management, animal husbandry, horticulture/vegetable garden, cash crop production, food processing biogas and business planning, and entrepreneurship skill training.
Minister Badjie said since the UNDP partial funding ended in 2021, the Ministry has been using its development budget to maintain the center and train of young people because youth empowerment, especially in agriculture is a priority for the government.
"We are more motivated by the number of youths we meet after they graduated from GSI, and they narrate their stories of how much the GSI benefited them and how it helped change their lives and that of their families," Minister Badjie emphasised.
The Minister thus urged the graduating students to make use of the opportunities and support by the National Enterprise Development Initiatives (NEDI), the Roots project and the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) for startup capital on their desired programme and future endeavour.
Mbye Saine, the project coordinator of GSI, gave a brief history of the project, saying the initiatives came from Benin and were introduced in The Gambia with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Since inception, the project has graduated 600 young people with females forming the majority.
"If we are able to equip our women it means the backbone of the nation is meaningful," Saine noted.
He disclosed that the programme has been funded by the government of the Gambia since 2018 through The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) with some support from UNDP.
Participants for the programme, he said, are drawn from all seven (7) regions. He added that the programme includes feeding, accommodation, stipend, little start-up capital, post-graduate monitoring, and coaching.
He highlighted the importance of the project and said the initiatives are against the backdrop of irregular migration.
The project coordinator commended the Youth Ministry for the continuous support to the young people of The Gambia and called on other donor partners to emulate UNDP and come to their aid for more progress.
Deputy Permanent Secretary Alhagie Nyangado Ministry of Agriculture, expressed his ministry’s resolve in supporting youth who venture into agriculture.
"If you can produce enough food it wouldn't be difficult to make a saving" he informed the graduating students.
Lamin Darboe, representative of UNDP, also expressed UNDP’s unwavering committed to supporting the government through its various interventions to empower youth and women to improve their lives and livelihood through their support to GSI, NYSS, and Youth Connekt at the NYC.
According to him, 10 of the best among the graduated students will benefit from a grant of D100,000 (one hundred thousand dalasis) as start-up capital to improve their productive and financial capacities, and help them navigate the transition from skills development to employment.
To strengthen institutional capacity and support digitalisation, he said, the UNDP accelerator lab provided 6 desktop computers to the GSI for information, telecommunications, and communication classes.
