CONSTRUCTION OF AGRO FOOD CENTRE OFFICIALLY KICK-OFF IN THE GAMBIA

The site handing over for the construction of an Agro Food Processing Center at The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute (GTHI) was done on Wednesday to officially start work. The project is given to GAMWORKS under The Gambia Pilot Project by the German Development Agency (GIZ) ECOWAS.

Kaddijatou Fofana, Project Manager at GAMWORKS, said the center will be used to train GTHI students on how to process agro-food materials, adding that they chose GTHI because of its impact on the tourism industry; but also to help promote the country’s local market.

She added the contract worth 21.9 million dalasi, saying the facility will be about 1000 square meters.

Momodou Singhateh, deputy director general at GTHI, said the project would add value to their training. He added that their main pride in the project is the ability to link agriculture to tourism to expand the benefits of tourism.

“We will design recipes that will be based on some of the food processes that are going to be processed in the center to make sure we provide food that is 100% locally sourced,” he said.

Sainabou Drammeh, communications officer for GIZ ECOWAS, said GTHI will train 200 of its students in agro-food processing.

The project is a cooperation between ECOWAS and the German Government aimed at complimenting existing ECOWAS security and political initiatives to react to the emerging crisis across the region.

The Gambia is selected as the pilot program implemented by two partners namely; GAMWORKS supported by KFW under the Gambia Pilot Programme and GIZ-FRSD. The project areas of intervention include youth employment, women empowerment, skills development in the fisheries, poultry, and horticulture sectors, access to finance, business development as well as advocacy and awareness for returning migrants.