Kaolack, Dec 29 (APS) – Around fifty entrepreneurs from the Kaolack region (center) carrying projects in the agri-food sector received their certificate after two months of training, provided by the Institute of Food Technology (ITA), noted the APS on Saturday.
This training is part of the Project to support the development of skills and entrepreneurship of young people in promising sectors (PDCEJ). This project is financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the government of Senegal.
Lasting five years, the project operates in the regions of Dakar, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, Thiès and Kaolack.
»It aims to promote growth and employment through improving the quality of the workforce, the competitiveness of businesses and youth entrepreneurship in the promising sectors of industry and agriculture. », Specified Professor Momar Talla Guèye, Director General of ITA.
As part of its implementation, the PDCEJ signed an agreement with the ITA for the training of 1000 young people and women and the incubation of 200 businesses in the agri-food sector.
The Director General of the ITA recalls that ”it is a long process which began with a selection, which was very democratic, of the beneficiaries and training on eleven modules including seven technical modules”.
The modules focus in particular on the processing of local cereals and fruits and vegetables, fishery and livestock products, the manufacture of infant flour, bread-making, and recipes based on local products.
For Kaolack, the target was 200 beneficiaries, but the ITA was able to train 208 people in these areas and on other transversal modules, notably business management and quality, said Professor Momar Talla Guèye.
At the level of the project intervention regions, a target of 1000 beneficiaries had been assigned to the ITA by the ADB. At the end, 1028 were trained, or 65% women, representing 32% of people trained at the national level.
After this stage, the general director of the ITA believes that we must move towards the endogenization and/or territorialization of the economy to further promote local products in the different production zones of the country.
Professor Guèye assures that the ITA will “faithfully” follow this program of the State of Senegal, since it has the knowledge and know-how to support the processing units.
It is with this in mind that the ITA intends to deploy in the regions, through agropoles to support this process of territorialization of public policies and ensure “much better proximity” with its targets.
He also indicated that one of the ITA’s missions is to create technologies. This is why, in the next phase of its interventions, the institute intends to set up industrial units in the agri-food sector.
ADE/FKS/ASG
