WAN-Hive Ghana to Strengthen the AgriTech Sector in Ghana through Women Inclusion
WAN-Hive Ghana is a social impact hub for sustainable mentorship and education of young women and girls to build careers in technology, leadership, entrepreneurship, and social development. To promote girls’ interest and participation in technology, WAN-Hive Ghana in partnership with Ghana Tech Lab with support from Mastercard Foundation, Young Africa Works, World Bank, and the Ministry of Communication held their 2022 consultative Stakeholders engagement under the theme “The role of AgriTech in Transforming the local Economy for Job Creation and Economic Development”.
Under the Pathways to Sustainable Employment Program (PaSE), this engagement will help to build consensus, gather feedback, and recommend strategies on the best ways that technology can be applied in our agriculture sector in the Bono Region for the transformation of the local agricultural economy for job creation, economic development, and making agriculture appealing to the youth.
The 2022 engagement like the maiden edition, drew various stakeholders from six targeted pillars including the Human Capital pillar, Policy and Government pillar, Media pillar, Market pillar, Support, and infrastructure pillar, and the Finance pillar. A number of stakeholders from different organizations were recorded including reps from the National Youth Authority (NYA), Registrar General’s Department, Ghana Library Authority (GLA), Gender Department, Capital Rural Bank, Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA), NGOs, media outlets Educational Institution, and many more.
The Founder and CEO of WAN-Hive Ghana, Janat Issifu in her opening remarks at the Ideas Hotel reiterated the contributions of WAN-Hive Ghana since the year 2017 in building the capacity of young women and girls in technology and entrepreneurship development. She mentioned that this year’s Stakeholders Engagement is a call to action for all parties to contribute their quota in driving the interest of young women in the AgriTech Sector whilst supporting them with the needed technical and business development training opportunities to help build and sustain their ventures. According to her, WAN-Hive Ghana has launched the “Women in Agribusiness Program” that seeks to develop the Female
Agribusiness potential in the Bono Region through inclusive dialogues and capacity development training programs. The Program was launched in March 2022 with 50 members. In her concluding statement, she announced the partnership program with Ghana Tech Lab which will be supporting over 50 young women with Web App Development training coupled with a free Business Incubation and a paid Internship.
Mr. Vincent Mawuko, a crop scientist at the Department of Agriculture, Sunyani Municipal giving a short address at the meeting expressed his excitement with the many opportunities being created for young women through WAN-Hive Ghana. He stated that these opportunities would help provide long-term career prospects for the youth, particularly young women. He underlined the importance of technology in our environment, particularly in agriculture, and how it would assist young people to position themselves advantageously in this high-digital-demand labor market. In addition, farmers will be able to access new markets as part of their commercial operations.
Mr. Emmanuel Yeboah Junior, the Programs and Project manager from Ghana Library Authority also applauds WAN-Hive Ghana for the good work they are doing as far as women are concerned and they will continue to support our cause. He also advised young ladies to take these opportunities very seriously because it will go a long to help them.
Mr. Ebenezer Tabiri, a rep from Capital Rural Bank enlightened startups about accessing support from financial institutions to grow their businesses and the essence of insuring their AgriTech businesse.
The program came to an end with closing remarks from Kpodo Godwin, the Programs Associate at WAN-Hive Ghana, appreciating participants for their enormous contributions to the discourse and recommendations towards strengthening the AgriTech sector in the Bono Region and Ghana at Large.
The Web App training commences in July 2022 at WAN-HIVE GHANA, Dumasua.
