30,000 Youths to Be Employed by Agricultural Ministry

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Professor  Patrick Monty Jones  on Tuesday 19th July 2016 informed Members of the Parliamentary oversight Committee on Agriculture that President Koroma’s ‘Agenda for Prosperity’ and vision is working on an initiative to employ 30,000 youths within his (Prof. Jones) ministry in the next two years. He made this statement when presenting the annual progress report of 2015 to March 2016, in the House of Parliament.

He remarked that all his plans and proposals are tied to promoting the President’s ‘Agenda for Prosperity’.

He added that Sierra Leone is empowered with natural resources including land, good climate, and good weather and “has the potential to create employment in agriculture sector for the young people, and that will result in economic development, as well as growth.”

He said: “Currently, the country is spending $250m on the importation of food commodities like rice, chickens, among others.” 

Prof. Jones disclosed that since 19th January 2016, when he took over the Ministry, he has developed many initiatives and plans to achieve President Koroma’s Agenda which have been lined up for 2016 to 2032. 

“In the last few months, much research has been conducted in the ministry to know the kind of activities that will help Sierra Leone achieve economic growth and large employment opportunity for the youths of this nation.”

The Minister unveiled that currently the ministry has 7 projects and 9 more will be coming in the next few months. 

He underlined the fact that the Presidential initiative calls for resource based component, and youths can play a key role including harvesting, cultivation, value chain, paying tax as well as contributing to the economic growth of the country.  

He went on to say that in the next 13 months, they will be putting modalities in place to employ 10, 000 in the agricultural sector projecting, 30,000 youths will gain employment in 2years. 

He noted that, the various projects have the tendency to employ more youths to enhance

 productivities that will help to reduce food prices.