Ten young agro-entrepreneurs from Grand Bassa, Rivercess, and Grand Cape Mount counties on Tuesday were awarded start-up grants by SPARK to establish business ventures along the cassava, pineapple, and plantain value chains.
On average, each entrepreneur would receive €5,000. The award is an initiative under the programme Prosperous Agriculture Roadmap to Nutrition and Entrepreneurship, Reinforcing Sustainability (PARTNERS). The grant amounts would allow beneficiaries to venture into producing plantain cereal, super gari, cassava flour, pineapple juice, and other value-added products along the strategic value chains, as part of larger efforts to enhance food processing, preservation, and to improve agricultural markets in Liberia.
The ten grantees were among scores of young Liberians that applied for access to finance under the Programme and about two weeks ago emerged successful at a pitch session in Buchanan where they presented their business ideas to a panel of jury along with 10 other contestants. SPARK has provided intensive business training to the applicants throughout the selection process to enable them improve their business ideas and enhance their business management skills.
In a remark at the award ceremony held at the Corina Hotel in Monrovia on Tuesday, SPARK Country Manager Michael Slewion Doe admonished the grant recipients to make better use of the opportunity provided them and to serve as good ambassadors for other young people in need of similar opportunities. The advice was echoed by Geertrui Louwagie, Cooperation Officer for Rural Development, Food Security and Environment at the EU Delegation, who, through a brief virtual remark, asked the grantees to have positive attitudes, to take calculated risks, and to embrace creativity.
Also speaking, renowned agro-processor and Manager of the Liberia Business Incubator (LBI), Rugie Barry used the occasion to inspire the start-pus and highlighted the importance of commitment and resilience in starting such a business. Mrs. Barry recounted how she had started with only a bag of fufu and that it was resilience and innovation that kept her into business at the time when she had no major financing opportunity such as the kind of support being provided by the PARNTERS Programme.
The PARTNERS Programme is a five-year agricultural project funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by a consortium of four international non-governmental organizations, including Welthungerhilfe, Concern Worldwide, ZOA. The programme aims to improve the productive and sustainability of nutrition sensitive agriculture at the level of small-holder farmers, as well to promote business and develop the value chains for cassava, plantain, pineapple, moringa, and legumes in seven counties, including Grand Cape Mount, Bomi, Margibi, Grand Bassa, River Cess, Sinoe, and Grand Kru.