The 20 beneficiaries will receive GH¢20,000 each as start-up for their poultry farm projects.

The initiative is a partnership between the NSS and other state agencies such as the Macrofinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Programme (NEIP) and the National Youth Authority (NYA).

The 20 beneficiaries were selected through a competitive process from 500 service persons who were deployed under the scheme’s entrepreneurship and innovation modules.

In the partnership arrangement, the NSS will be the lead agency that will spearhead the project, while MASLOC will provide funds to the beneficiaries.

The NEIP, NBSSI and NYA are also expected to play key roles in capacity building and training programmes for the beneficiaries.

PET

The 20 beneficiaries, who will finish their mandatory national service in August, this year, have been taken through a week-long capacity building workshop to prepare them for the poultry business.

Dubbed the Poultry Entrepreneurship Training (PET), the workshop was used to train the beneficiaries in poultry farming practices.

Entrepreneurship

Speaking at the closing session of the PET in Accra yesterday, the Executive Director of the NSS, Mr Mustapha Ussif, said the initiative was meant to provide sustainable livelihoods to the youth.

“We expect that every farm can grow to create employment for at least 50 people who work within the poultry value chain,” he said.

“I want to reiterate that we at the NSS are focused on creating entrepreneurs out of the large number of service persons who pass through us so that they will become job creators rather than moving from one office to the other looking for non-existent jobs,” he said.

He urged the beneficiaries to take advantage of the poultry project and justify why more support should be given to more people in that sector.

Strategic investment

The Executive Director of the NBSSI, Ms Kosi A. Yankey, said the investment in the poultry sector was a strategic one that had the potential to provide livelihoods to many young people.

She urged the youth to take opportunities in entrepreneurship, since that was the way to get sustainable livelihoods, especially when the public sector was choked.

Ms Yankey said the NBSSI was ready to play its role effectively to support small businesses to grow and create more employment opportunities in the country.