The Presidential advisor on SDGs to the president of Ghana, Dr. Eugene Owusu has urged the youth to make agriculture an integral part of their lives and see it as a profitable business Avenue for job creation and poverty reduction.
He said this during the delivering of his keynote address at the launch of the Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable on Sustainable Development Goals (GYERSDGs) by the Eastern and Volta regional branches of the Association Ghana Industries (AGI) at Akosombo in the Eastern region.
He said there are numerous opportunities in Agriculture as such leveraging these opportunities will require decisive policy action that will enhance access to capital and promote innovation in the sector.
The Chairman of the Eastern/ Volta regional branches of (AGI), Mr. Dela Gadzanku, in his address said that the Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable on SDGs among other things is to engage, discuss and facilitate Public-Private effort to achieve measurable outcome towards the nationally determined contributions to SDGs in alignment with global development strides.
He emphasized that Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable aims to utilize the talents of the young streamrollers to serve as primemovers who would help increase public awareness and seen across the private sector to foment enthusiasm to strategically place the country on a fast track towards its goals on SDGs.
To add a voice to the young entrepreneurs’ contribution to the SDGs, the DCE of Asuogyaman, Hon. Samuel Kwame Agyekum also asked the young entrepreneurs to be conversant with the seventeen sustainable development goals in order to promote themselves and sensitize industry players towards achieving the SDGs agenda 2030.
He stated that the aim of government among other things is to eradicate poverty in all forms by creating employment opportunities through 1 District 1 Factory (1D1F), Maslock, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, among others.
The technical advisor of the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Dr. Kwakye Ameyaw also said the Forestry Commission has a lot of confidence in the youth and has therefore set up two departments to protect the green nature of the country.
“The commission has put up two departments to help maintain the green nature of this country. These are plantation department and climate change department. The plantation department seeks to spearhead all activities pertaining to tree planting and we are encouraging everybody to participate in the tree planting that is ongoing in the country.
The climate change department is to educate the citizenry as we are doing here on the realities of climate change and discuss with the communities, the drivers of deforestation, effects of deforestation and forest degradation as well as interventions that would be required to restore the degraded forest in the country”. He said.
Dr. Ameyaw further commended the youth for their contribution towards tree planting exercise. He admonished that last year when about Sixty thousand of the youth were engaged in planting trees, they were able to plant about eleven thousand hectares of land across the country.
The technical advisor to the vice president, Dr. Samuel Kwadwo Frimpong also encouraged the youth to look for assistance in order to bring their business ideas to light. He mentioned that entrepreneurs are the key figures to achieving sustainable development goals.
This he said has compelled the government to create an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
A brief tree planting exercise was also held at Akwamuman Senior High School to educate the students on the need to protect the environment in their effort to raise awareness on climate change.
