60 South Kivu youths gain agribusiness skills

1 March 2024

Over 60 young people from South Kivu have been trained in agricultural and agribusiness entrepreneurship by IITA -CGIAR as part of the Projet d'Entrepreneuriat de Jeunes dans l'Agriculture et l'Agrobusiness (PEJAB) project.

The closing ceremony and the presentation of business plans were organized on 23 February during a business morning in Bukavu.

According to IITA-Kalambo Administrator Julie Lunzihirwa, these young people received technical and entrepreneurial training on several cross-cutting modules, mentoring and coaching, and visits to exchange experiences and learn from each other to promote the young graduates the spirit of creating profitable businesses, integrated into promising agropastoral sectors.

"At the request of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was asked to provide technical assistance to PEJAB. The AfDB was to finance the technical assistance to be rendered by IITA. This request was justified by IITA's experience in implementing similar projects in Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire, and Sudan, and the offer for technical assistance was prepared in this regard. Today, IITA presents over 60 young people who have been trained in collaboration with its partner, COSECOT, for six months, some of whom are going to present their bankable business plans, which we hope will attract your attention and receive financing from investors and certain financial institutions," she declared.

For his part, the provincial minister in charge of agriculture, Jean Bosco Ruteye Kitambala, promises to support these young people and hopes they will flood the market to reduce unemployment and food insecurity.

"The efforts made by IITA to train young entrepreneurs in South Kivu with cross-cutting themes align with the provincial government's aim to offer young people the space to develop their entrepreneurial skills in a healthy business climate. It is the duty of those in authority, who also serve as guardians, to accompany young people in their daily entrepreneurial activities to limit the rate of unemployment, banditry, and perdition for their better future and that of our beloved province. Our concern is to see these young people flood the city and regional markets with local production and no longer rely on imports, which do nothing to enhance our pride and joy," he declared.

The trainees were satisfied with the knowledge they had acquired and hoped to find financial partners to turn their projects into reality.

PEJAB's representative, Marie Caroline, was pleased to see that 68 companies, newly created by these young trainees, had legalized their documents at the end of the business morning.

This intense training program began on 26 October 2023 in Kalambo, South Kivu province, lasting over three months.

Contributed by Isabelle Buhoro

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