The Ghana Enterprises Agency in partnership with Mondelez Cocoa Life has launched a youth project to support cocoa farmers improve on their yields.

The initiative dubbed ‘farm service providers project’ is a one year intervention for youth in the Central and Eastern regions to make some income in providing services for cocoa farmers.

Chief Executive of the Ghana Enterprises Agency, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh who spoke to Joy Business after launching the initiative expressed confident that it coincides with the youth and entrepreneurship empowerment that is being highlighted in the 2022 budget.

“The initiative is linked to the youth empowerment policies of the government for the year. And as you may recall, in the 2022 budget, government has hinted of focusing on entrepreneurship and youth development through the YouStart initiative. This is in line with that policy and as an agency mandated to support youth businesses in the country, we find it very important to help our farmers with some services to improve upon the production” Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh said.

Country Lead for the Cocoa Life Programme, Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, explained that the initiative will go a long way to improve the livelihoods of the beneficiary youth as well as boost cocoa production.

“We in Ghana have cocoa as a great contributor to our economy and this is part of measures to ensure sustainability of the product”.

“The initiative is to attract the youth in production of the crop and also serve as a source of income for them rather than being idle in these cocoa growing communities” she said.