NACCUG Trains 35 Mini Grant Shortlisted Applicants on Financial Literacy

Mr. Saikou Touray, YEP/NACCUG Mini Grants Office

The National Association of Cooperative Credit Union of the Gambia (NACCUG), last Saturday, 1st December, 2018, convened a Financial Literacy training programme for 35 shortlisted applicants of Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) mini grant scheme.

 Held at its head office in Bakau, the training was meant to build the participants’ capacities on Savings, Management and Basic Records Keeping for SMEs.

The YEP mini grant scheme application process and funds disbursement is under the purview of NACCUG.

Delivering the opening remarks on the occasion, the mini grant Officer, Saikou Touray dilated on the purpose of the gathering, stating that is a rare opportunity for the participants to be part of the training.

He also tasked them to make good use of training.

Also speaking, the NACCUG Financial and Admin Manager, Mr Patrick Mendy welcome all the participants to the training and advise them to make best use of the opportunity accorded them.

Independent evaluation shows that IFAD support to Burkina Faso has increased agricultural productivity and incomes of households

Ouagadougou, 23 November 2018 –Development projects financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have contributed to increased agricultural productivity and food security levels in Burkina Faso, according to results from an independent evaluation presented today.

The evaluation, conducted by the Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE) of IFAD,  assessed the results and performance of the IFAD-financed programme in the country, while providing recommendations for IFAD’s ongoing partnership with Burkina Faso as they work together to reduce rural poverty. The country strategy focused on the nutrition of the rural population, the resilience of rural households to food security, and the economic challenges they face.

The IOE evaluation, the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, covered the period from 2007 to 2017, and included six completed projects, of which one is on-going. The evaluation spanned 11 of the country’s 13 regions.

With only $15M, GYIN Gambia vows to create 70,000 jobs

Mamadou Edrisa Njie, ED GYIN Gambia 

The GYIN Gambia Executive Director, Mamadou Edrisa Njie has called on development partners and donor agencies to invest a funding package of $15 million in a bid to enable his organization to realize its innovative ideas in creating 70,000 direct and indirect jobs for young people across the country.

To implement these ideas, Mr. Njie noted that his organization is requesting for only this amount and within three years, 70,000 jobs will be created.

Speaking at the Youth Trade and Agribusiness Forum on the theme “Youth Employment in Agriculture and Tourism as a solid solution to ending Food Insecurity and Unemployment in The Gambia” at the ongoing National Youth Agribusiness and Tourism Expo 2018, organized by the Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC) at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, he assured that GYIN Gambia is ever ready to refund the money in full to any donor or development partner, if the project fails.

Jainaba Saine’s Foundation poised to support people with disability

Founder Jainaba Saine

A Gambian-based charitable foundation, Jainaba Saine’s Charity for Disable (JSCD) is out to give a helping hand to the vulnerable people especially those living with disability with educational materials, wheel chairs and among a host of other valuables.

The foundation, which is scheduled to be launch in January 2019, is initiated by a Gambian based in Holland by the name Jainaba Saine to change vulnerable lives.

 “We want to enable all children and disabled persons to reach their optimum potential so that maximal function is achieved, deformity prevented or reduced and the effect of disability minimized so that they may overcome many of the barriers that they and their families face,” says the founder.

NACCUG disburses over D1.5M mini grant fund to support youths

The Mini Grants Scheme Officer of the Association National of Cooperative Credit Union of the Gambia (NACCUG), Mr Saikou Touray has said his office has disbursed about one million, five hundred and twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and eighty-one dalasi, eighty bututs (D1, 522, 781. 80) to support the beneficiaries in the country. 

The purpose of the mini grant fund is to enhance employability of youths in the Gambia, create more youth friendly enterprises thus curbing the menace of irregular migration while encouraging youth take leadership roles in the credit union movement.

Since the inception of the Scheme, Mr. Touray said, NACCUG has been entrusted with its management by the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) to support young Gambians in creating prospective enterprises as well as up-scaling the micro medium, and small scale existing businesses. As at end of April 30^th 2018, 32 young Gambians out of the 234 applications received nationwide has been awarded grants either to start a new business or improve their existing business.

GYIN Gambia Chapter inks one year MoU with Kerr Fatou

Mamadou Edrisa Njie & Fatou Jallow signing the MoU

Churchill’s Town- 06^th September, 2018: As part of its efforts to intensify its visibility for a wider coverage, the Global Youth Innovation Network Gambia chapter (GYIN Gambia Chapter) on Monday, 3rd September 2018 signed a year-long Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kerr Fatou..

The MoU signing, which took place at the GYIN-Gambia Secretariat in Churchill’s Town at the Youth Entrepreneurship Plaza, seeks to create a collaborative partnership to reinforce both institutions’ objectives in complementing each other’s efforts in providing publicity to expose the good work and initiatives of young Gambian entrepreneurs’ on Kerr Fatou TV and other platforms.

Signing on behalf of GYIN Gambia, Mamadou Edrisa Njie, the GYIN Gambia chapter, Executive Director recalled that a recommendation was made by the Nema-Chosso Project Steering Committee (PSC) in 2017 in Jenoi, LRR that the youth network should be supported by Nema-Chosso and other agricultural projects in the country to profile the success stories of young entrepreneurs’ particularly those in the agricultural sector. 

IFAD supports G20 initiatives to promote land management and rural youth employment

Rome, 26 July 2018 – Ahead of his address to the Group of Twenty (G20) Ministers of Agriculture Meeting this week, Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), offered the institution's full support for efforts to increase the sustainable production of nutritious foods.

"Sustainably feeding a growing population will take collective action and IFAD stands ready to partner with the G20 to achieve this,” Houngbo said prior to his departure for Buenos Aires. “With small family farms supplying up to 80 per cent of the food produced in developing countries, it has never been more critical to invest in these farmers, providing the tools for them to better manage their land and ensure the health and productivity of their soil in the face of a changing climate.”

GYIN Gambia Welcomes GLEN Interns

From left: Paulina Kowalke & Tim Tolle

The national chapter of Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN Gambia) on Thursday held a session to welcome interns from GLEN (Global Education Network of Young Europeans). 

Their arrival is part of a three months internship programme between the two organisations on areas of youth work and development in the Gambia.

Speaking at the welcoming ceremony, Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Executive Director of the national chapter said the receipt of two interns by his office is a significant mark of partnership between GLEN (Global Education Network of Young Europeans) and the Gambia chapter of Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN Gambia).

He said that the internship programme is intended to promoting and supporting youth in rural areas in the areas of agriculture and small-scale agri-business. He added that their engagements will include sharing knowledge of entrepreneurship, business advisory services, mentoring, and organisational management, as well as public relations work, fundraising and some computer skills with their counterparts in the country.