As part of the Regional Visit to Dakar, Senegal, GYIN Gambia Delegation this morning- 29th May, 2019 paid a courtesy call on the Director General of the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire – an Institute for Food Technology (ITA), Dr Mamadou Amadou Seck in his office at the ITA Complex.
The Director General welcomed the delegation with delight and assured them his Institute’s support in responding to the organisation’s call. He briefed the gathering on the Institute’s achievements and its area of expertise.
On 27th May, 2019, which marks the first day of the regional visit to Dakar, Senegal, the delegation led by the Director General of Wa YAbi Distribution, Yama Ndiaye together with the GYIN Gambia team and the five young entrepreneurs held a fruitful meeting with the External Affairs Director of the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire – an Institute for Agribusiness Technology (ITA), Mr Fallou Sarr at his office in the ITA complex in Mariste.
The meeting was meant to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Institute and GYIN Gambia in a bid to support and train young Gambian entrepreneurs in the areas of packaging, labeling, and processing of foodstuff.
Giving a background history of GYIN Gambia, the Executive Director, Mamadou Edrisa Njie explained the Organization’s intervention areas such as providing entrepreneurship, agribusiness and leadership trainings for rural youths. He said GYIN Gambia also provides technical guidance to young entrepreneurs through mentoring programmes.
The organisation, Njie said, is financially supported by the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (Nema), the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) as well as the Building Resilience Against Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2RS). He noted that this particular visit is fully funded by the Youth Empowerment Project.
After welcoming the team with utmost delight, Mr Fallou Sarr, the Institute’s External Affair Director said ITA is a center of “Excellence” and the only certified center in West Africa to test aflatoxin.
He added that the center offers training programmes to interested individuals and groups for research and other laboratory tests.
Signing an MoU with GYIN Gambia, according to him, will be of mutual benefit for both parties.
Mr Sarr further expressed interest in providing trainings for young people in the follow-up GYIN Gambia’s Entrepreneurship Leadership Information and Technology (ELIT) National Youth Summer Camp.
He explained that they usually receive participants from Guinea Bissau, Mali, and other countries in the Sub Region for training programmes.
The ITA External Affairs Manager went on to thank GYIN Gambia for having the foresight to come up with such an initiative to expose its members to learn from Senegalese sectors, noting that value addition means earning more money from your product.
From the Institute, the later proceeded to a Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) supported micro-garden in collaboration with Dakar Ville situated in Grand Dakar.
Managed by a trained gardener, Madam Ouly Seck, the garden is a combination of different fruit and vegetable crops and medicinal plants which are being planted in groundnut shells.
She also engages in sheep fattening, poultry production, and aquaculture.