Beekeepers request govt’s support to train 5000 unemployed youth
Beekeepers want to train about 5000 unemployed youth in bee-keeping as part of efforts to support the government’s district industrialisation programme (DIP), christened 'one-district, one-factory.'
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This is expected to help absorb the teaming unemployed youth across the country.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Beekeepers Association (GBA), Mr Oscar Nartey Adjabeng, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on (July 11) in Accra that the initiative could revamp the bee-keeping industry.
Over 71,000 students graduate every year onto the job market from both private and public tertiary institutions. A conservative estimate shows that there are over 200,000 unemployed graduates in Ghana.
Given the inability of the public sector to absorb the large numbers, the association is therefore calling on the government to facilitate the training programme to help create jobs for the youth.
Beekeepers forward proposal
Subsequently, the association has forwarded a proposal to the government requesting for a GH¢1.62 billion stimulus package to implement its five-year development programme to sustain the bee keeping industry in Ghana.
Under the programme, the association intends to inject about 480,000 new bee hives which will translate into 3.6 million kilogrammes of honey over the five years period.
Mr Adjabeng explained that the programme would also help the country rake in GH¢1.8 billion revenue every five years.
“We are making this request against the backdrop of the existing demands from both within the local and international market. From Turkey, alone there is a demand for well over 150,000 metric tonnes of honey per month,” he added.
He explained that the country’s present production was woefully inadequate to even satisfy its local demand, hence the need for traders to import more to augment the market.
“If we are to be empowered to take advantage of the demand from Turkey alone, that would mean a monthly revenue of GH¢ 1.8 million,” he said.
Mr Adjabeng revealed that “the proposal projected to train over 200 people from each of the 216 districts in the country. That alone sums up to 43,200 proposed beneficiaries with each being resourced with 50 beekeeping inputs at a cost of GH¢ 37,500.”
“This figure includes training and all the necessary beekeeping inputs for anybody to practice beekeeping successfully and it is expected that it will yield an annual returns of GH¢44,100 for each participant, and that gives a margin of GH¢ 6,600 just in the first year.”
Sustaining the programme
To sustain the programme, the executive secretary said the association had developed a scheme where beneficiaries would repay the initial cost gradually over a period of time from proceeds of the hives.
He advised the government to put a deliberate policy in place as a social intervention programme geared towards making people earn more from their own local communities.
Engaging the youth
Mr Adjabeng urged the unemployed youth to venture into bee keeping business because it was lucrative and easy to manage.
“The initial cost involved in the project is the preparation of the bee hives and there is no application of any agricultural inputs or methods in the project,” he said.
“There are much untapped employment opportunities in the production and processing of honey which has been neglected for so many years now in Ghana because of lack of attention and investment,” he said.
“Honey is one of the most important prodZucts the world is demanding today and Ghana has a conducive environment to make it a major export product and to actively engage the youth especially in an attempt to create jobs and thus reducing the spate of rural urban drift,” he added. –GB