A Total of 602 Young Entrepreneurs in Newton, Western Rural District and from the Business Development Service Centre operated by the African Foundation for Development (afford) in Makeni, the Northern Regional Capital, have graduated on the 28th January and 7th February 2014 respectively.
At the Obasanjo Skills Acquisition Centre in Newton, where 500 (300 male, 200 female) youth trained in various disciplines ranging from ICT, Community Development Studies, Conflict Resolution, graduated on the 28th January.
The National Youth Commissioner, heading the agency created by the government of Sierra Leone to help address the burning issue of youth empowerment in the country, said: "A diploma or certificate is not a job in itself. The diploma is a means to an end. These projects are only geared towards enhancing your skills so that you will be able to independently find jobs and be successful in the future."
At a ceremony in the Makeni City Council hall, the Chairman of the Makeni Youth Council, Ibrahim Jalloh, said: "Youth are the agents of growth in our society."
Speaking at a ceremony attended by the Northern Regional Commissioner of NAYCOM, president of the Traders Union, community youth activists, UNDP and budding entrepreneurs, the Makeni Youth Council chairman added: "These new skills and knowledge that the youth have acquired will help them become self-employed, independently run their own businesses and help Sierra Leone move forward."
Nine women among the graduates in Makeni received cash prize of Le1,000,000 (one million Leones) each as reward for their excellent business plans developed during the trainings. The prize money (about US$235), will be invested into their businesses.
Sheku Kamara from Makeni and one of the graduates, who has established a business that uses household waste to produce environmentally friendly charcoal, said: "I used to run a PlayStation centre and selling ginger cakes; the centre took a lot of my time and I had very little profit. But since I joined the BDS and started learning entrepreneur skills, I came to realize that the centre consumed too much time, so I decided to stop doing it and jumped into another business. I started producing environmental friendly charcoals for households. These charcoals are produced from household plastic waste. I have now also trained and employed other young people."
An excited Adama Iye Kamara, winner of the cash prize in Makeni city, said: "I have been doing business for six years now but BDS has enhanced my business skills, and I'm going to apply these skills in my business to help it grow in the future.
"I'm calling on young people, especially young businesswomen, to enroll because it will help you be independent women in society, so that you will not depend on any man. As I stand here today, I'm really happy and proud of myself for this achievement."
UNDP Business Development Officer, Hassan Conteh, said the organisation will continue to support the young entrepreneurs through the business development centres and the implementing partners, like AFFORD-Sierra Leone, to transform the lives of young people in Sierra Leone.
The BDS centres, supported technically and financially by UNDP under the Youth Employment and Empowerment Programme (YEEP), were established in 2012 in Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Freetown and Newton, in collaboration with the National Youth Commission, to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of young people and strengthen micro, small and medium enterprises in the country.
BDS centres provide a range of trainings, business advice, mentoring and coaching, business planning and management including financial literacy and also link them up with financial service providers to enable them access finance to run small and medium businesses.