AgroConnect Ghana had a soft launch amongst invited guests from selected business and Agriculture stakeholders from Singapore and Ghana.
‘AgroConnect is a Singapore corporate and private grant funded initiative that is now rolling out in Ghana. AgroConnect Ghana at its core is a smallholder farmer capacity building platform that will impart training and skills to our Youth, target ‘local foods’, regional markets and higher incomes for farmers’, said Amma Gyampo, Project Director at AgroConnect.
AgroConnect is responsible for tying up capacity building, development and training opportunities in Africa’s Agric ecosystem. The initiative is financially supported by the Singapore private sector and has non-financial support from the public sector, Govt agencies and ministries in Singapore.
AgroConnect is an initiative launched to attract Singapore private investment in a farmer training platform in Ghana in order to target the much-needed food security and improve farmer incomes. Agriculture is at the core of everything we do in Ghana and we believe the youth are key in the progress we can make and we are looking at working with them closely on the farm school’ said Gyampo.
AgroConnect Ghana is led by SCE (Singapore Cooperation Enterprise) for project management with technical lead, Holland Greentech, as the on-ground execution partner in Ghana with various opportunities for private sector partners to sponsor and support the scaling of Agroconnect ‘Farm School’ sites across Ghana to engage and equip the Youth in the business of Agriculture. The AgroConnect has an integrated business model designed to keep the project self-sustaining and viable for all stakeholders involved.
‘What AgroConnect is looking at is collaboration between the Singapore Corporate entities and the agricultural community and ecosystem. As the stooled Queen Mother of HoeHoe as Mama Dzomi Dor 1, I made a commitment to start with my people and make a difference within the community as the first phase and I am happy it is now a reality’ stated Fatima Alimohamed who also doubles up as the Chair of AgroConnect Ghana and as the Chair of the Agribusiness sector at the Association of Ghana Industries.
‘Food insecurity is real and it seems we all are burying our heads in the sand and running away from this reality that is facing us. The pandemic clearly showed us how dependent we were on imports and our only chance for survival is to move to localization for our own food basket. How can we have got to a situation where at one point one kilo of onions was more expensive than a liter of fuel’ Fatima said.
AgroConnect is committed to partner Ghanaian agricultural ventures for a sustainable, liveable and more inclusive future.
The Event was attended by the Paramount Chief and Elders of the Tafi community where the first farm school will be launched, the District Chief Executive of Afadjato South, the CEO of GEPA Dr Afua Asabea and Deputy CEO Sam Dentu, National Youth Authority Deputy CEO’s Nelson Owusu and Akosua Manu, Office of the President Diaspora Affairs office Einstein Ntim, Board Members of AgroConnect, bank representatives from Fidelity Bank and Omni Bank and representatives of key ministries and agencies amongst others.
‘We are very happy to support the AgroConnect initative in Ghana and we believe this is the start to a great partnership for Youth Entrepreneurship and Agriculture for both Ghana and Singapore’, said Marc Liew of SCE.
