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The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) has successfully trained 174 young agripreneurs in a comprehensive 90-day program focused on agricultural mechanization services, and awarded Nle2 Million grants to emerging youth-led agribusinesses.
The initiative, part of the AfDB Sierra Leone Agribusiness Support project under the ENABLE Youth Program, aimed to address the key mechanization skills gap in the Sierra Leone.
The training program equipped participants with essential skills such as tractor operations, harvester servicing, equipment maintenance, drone operation, and soil mapping.
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka, emphasized the importance of this training, stating, “For years now, we have gained little from our machines because we lacked the right people to operate, maintain, and repair them. Today, we are solving that problem.”
In a related effort to foster innovation in agriculture, MAFS awarded grants totaling nearly 2 million New Leones to 30 youth-led agribusinesses. Those grants were distributed based on the quality of submitted business plans, with top recipients receiving up to NLe 120,000.
The grant initiative notably aims to jumpstart new agricultural ventures and includes tailored coaching and mentorship for grant recipients to support their long-term success.
The overall initiative reportedly aligns with Pillars 1 and 6 of the Feed Salone strategy, which focuses on enhancing mechanization and empowering youth and women in agriculture.
By training skilled agripreneurs and providing financial support, MAFS has poised to take significant steps toward building a self-sustaining agricultural sector in Sierra Leone.
