By Isatou Colley
President Adama Barrow on Monday laid the foundation stone for the construction of the a agribusiness training centre in Kerewan Mandinka, Central River Region.
The construction of the training centre is sponsored by MRC Holland Foundation. The Centre will comprise a poultry, aquaculture, horticulture, field crops and agric-machinery among others.
“I am very happy and very excited today because this has been my dream. We cannot develop our country without training the people. Capacity building is very important that’s why we have to train our youth. We have to be skillful to make sure that we develop this country,” Barrow said.
He stressed that the Government priorities skills development. Barrow went further to say agriculture is the backbone of every development adding “if we are serious about our development we have to be serious about agriculture.”
Professor Pierre Gomez, the Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology said the Agribusiness Centre to be constructed would contribute greatly in addressing rural-urban migration and the irregular migration. He mentioned that the Center will offer two types of training- the certificate level will last for one year and the higher national program that will last for two years. He said for the higher national diploma a person will complete as a technician adding from there the person can transition to the university and study engineering. He said his Ministry is poised at transforming and decentralising some of the public tertiary and higher education institutions to meet its core mandate of building the human capital stock of The Gambia and for young people to be job creator rather than job seekers. Henrietta Sonko, country coordinator for MRC Holland Foundation said Foundation wished to create Urban-Rural drift as she advised people to depart from urban centers because it is so congested and move to the rural areas where you have healthy environment and free space adding a lot can be done to develop the country
