Some nine young market gardeners in Santa have received loans of agricultural input material, worth over 1.9 million CFA francs from the Youth Outreach Programme (YOP). The support giving ceremony held at the council premises recently. The donation by Youth Outreach Programme, which seeks to make urban centers more habitable, is part of their project to provide for some youths in Santa, Bamenda I, II and III council areas.
The youths were distributed six spraying machines, thirty-six bags of fertilizer, 180 bags of compost manure, rain boats, rain coats, and pesticides, that when qualified in monetary terms would range from about 100 to 200 thousands francs per beneficiary. The recipients would in turn invest them in their leaks, potato, carrots, celery and green paper gardens and then pay back after two farming seasons.
The close to nine million francs project funded by the United Nations Settlement Programme, UN-HABITAT, seeks to provide a sustainable approach to promoting youth employment and initiatives. While focus in Santa was directed towards market gardening, efforts in the Bamenda city council area would be geared towards poultry. These nine beneficiaries were selected from a group of fifty who had been trained by YOP, in Life skills and entrepreneurship development and subsequently on market gardening. The Bamenda lap would soon be announced.
Speaking at the event, Clement Wanki Atanga, Mayor of the Santa council saluted YOP’s initiative and challenged his young recipients to live up to expectation by making profits from the input materials. He added that the donation was about the first of its kind in his municipality, as it positively affects youths exclusively. On his part, Omer Songwe, Coordinator of the Youth Outreach Programme, acknowledged the alarming rate of poverty, from the background of which they intend to alleviate through the project. Reacting just after the project Head, Angwenjang Patience facilitated the loan contract signing exercise, one of the beneficiaries, Celestine Ndita said it would help increase his capital and improve upon his productivity. He however regretted that some of the products were not of expected qualities. The youngest recipient, sixteen year old Ranibel Lum, form five student of GBHS Santa and leek gardener appraised YOP, for her 164,000 CFA francs material loan. The event saw the presence of Sub Divisional authorities of agriculture and Rural Development and the farming population of Santa.
