Ghana’s senior minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo and Italian energy major Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi on Thursday launched the Okuafo Pa Agricultural Training Center in Dormaa East, in the country's Bono region, Eni said in a statement.
"Professional training and skill acquisition is a precondition for social and economic development," Descalzi said at the ceremony, which was attended by Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte and of Eni’s President Emma Marcegaglia.
Eni intends to play an active role in defining virtuous paths for sustainable growth in the countries in which it operates, and this project is a concrete example of what we can do if we pool our resources and those of our partners,” said Claudio Descalzi.
The new centre is a pilot initiative of the Africa Project which aims to support economic diversification in the agricultural sector through skill transfer and business support, in particular by means of self-sustaining agricultural consortia.
During the event, Eni and Italy's state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti signed a cooperation accord on sustainable development initiatives in the agri-business sector, the statement said. The agreement "also provides for a joint definition of mechanisms to facilitate access to credit in favour of the local communities and to use available international funds to promote sustainable development initiatives," the statement added.
The Okuafo Pa campus extends over an area of 40 hectares and includes experimental laboratories and farming areas. It will provide theoretical and practical vocational training to 800 students per year in the agricultural, agri-food and zootechnical fields. The training courses are developed in collaboration with local universities, and trainees can focus either on farming courses or agri-business courses, according to the statement.
The project, developed by Eni in collaboration with Ghana's government is receiving a further boost from the involvement of CDP, which will make sure participants have access to the most appropriate mechanisms to access credit, as well as Italian farmer association Coldiretti and Italian company Bonifiche Ferraresi, which will help with start-up agricultural activities, said the statement.
