By: Lamin Fatty
Mamadou Salieu Bah, Business Development Service Facilitator of WASDA, has dilated on the URR Women Empowerment Project dubbed “The inclusive business opportunity and socio-economic empowerment for women of URR.”
Bah said the ultimate aim of the project is to empower women, and that this can be done in diverse ways; that women are involved in numerous activities including horticultural.
“Our area of empowering women of URR is in vegetable production and its related businesses. We are targeting forty women, divided into vegetable production and horticultural value chain business categories,” he said.
Bah said there could be additional people to facilitate the transportation of the horticultural produce from the gardens to markets, and cited processing as a very important component of the project, amidst a handful of people with the skill.
He emphasized that it is required of applicants to have an individual land of half a hectare; to ensure that dispute over land does not arise, once production starts, with a view to help support the individual garden establishment; that one should be a member or an affiliate of the ‘Nematulie’ Marketing Federation among other conditions.
On the business aspect of the project, Bah narrated that their target is on people with entrepreneurial skills and that the project will support them with materials and seed money, to ensure expansion and sustainability of their businesses.
“The project is solely to support women in gardening, but the business aspect is opened to both males and females. This project is connected to the ‘Nematulie’ Marketing Federation, which is the overall women “Kafoo” in URR. They came together and formed the marketing federation, which was initiated by WASDA,” he added.
He highlighted some of the activities they have undertaken and among them, the sensitization of seventy six communities, about the project.
