The Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) under its value chain development component will be handing over agro-processing equipment to 14 beneficiary companies to enhance productivity and value addition, particularly at farm-gate. The beneficiaries are 3 groups and associations and 11 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) spread across Greater Banjul Area, West Coast Region, North Bank Region and Central River Region.

The equipment includes groundnut paste making machines, ground powder making machines, groundnut roasting machines, candy rolling machines tables (candy made from groundnut and cashew), flour milling machines, rice grader and de-stoners, dehulling machines for cereals including findi, vacuum packaging machines and materials and 62 KVA back up diesel generators. The agro-processing machines for groundnut and cereals, packaging machines and materials are valued over twenty-six million dalasi (D26,000,000).

As part of the cooperation, the beneficiaries have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with ITC to support the job creation effort. Once the equipment is installed and fully operational, the investment is estimated to create over 900 jobs in total, 644 direct jobs and about 300 indirect jobs for young Gambians.

The handing of the agro-processing machines will take place on Monday, 8th October 2018, at Brikama at the AK Agro United Processing Centre (at Brikama Fula Kunda towards the Kitty) at 11:00 AM.