The Member of Parliament for Jirapa Constituency on Sunday, 18th August, 2019 launched a new policy called Jirapa Enterprise Fund for Agriculture (JEFFA).
The Member of Parliament explained that the policy seeks to among other things, empower youth and women to venture into Agriculture and Agribusiness, in his innovative attempt, to reduce the increasing rate of unemployment in the Jirapa Constituency.
The program was launched with a seed capital of GH¢100,000.00.
Explaining the intent of the policy, the Member of Parliament who doubles as a philanthropist, mentioned that the youth and women will be supported to get credit facilities, farm inputs, loan facilities, technical support and transport facilities to enable them create jobs for themselves through Agriculture and Agribusiness.
The program is to be managed independently by Board of Directors and Zonal Coordinators constituted by the people themselves. This is to ensure transparency, better supervision, inclusiveness and bringing the program to the doorsteps of the people.
The Member of Parliament reiterated his commitment to creating jobs in the Jirapa Constituency to improve and transform lives for development. He, however, admonished the people not to politicise the program since it is a non-partisan approach of propelling sustainable development in the constituency.
All nine zones in the Municipality received a tricycle each, making a total of nine tricycles. The tricycles are supposed to be used to assist the transport of farm products and also to help the zones make some small savings to help finance activities of their zones.
He later commissioned the office that will be serving as a Secretariat for the programme.
Speaking to some of the beneficiaries, they were very excited that they are being supported by their Member of Parliament to create jobs. "This is the first time of getting such support and I am happy that it is a reality. If we will work very hard with this level of support, we can eradicate poverty in our area" a beneficiary (name withheld) indicated.
The euphoria at the program gave a signal that the new project is being endorsed by the youth, women and opinion leaders across the political divide.