Over 400 youth trained by Gulu University under AVSI ‘SAY’ Project

Gulu University has trained over 400 youth under the AVSI foundation project ‘Skilling Agriprenuership for Increased Youth Employment-(SAY). These youth were also given startup kits to help them deploy the learned skills to earn income, and a total of 161 youth out of the 400 trained got DIT certification.

According to the Dean of Students Faculty of Agriculture and Environment at Gulu University, Dr. Collins Okello, these youth acquired skills in Horticulture production, Mushroom production, Beekeeping, Agro-processing (juice making and bakery), Animal feeds formulated, Entrepreneurship, and both soft and life skills.

Dr. Okello said there is a lot of mindset change among the trained youth and some are now self-employed and able to pay or supplement payment of their university fees.

The Vice Chancellor of Gulu University Prof. Openjuru George Ladaah who officiated at the 2024 SAY project review meeting on Wednesday 12 June, 2024 from the University New Library encouraged the general public to support the trained youth by buying their organic products. He however, shared his disappointment with regulatory bodies like Uganda National Bureau Of Standards – UNBS, Uganda Registration Services Bureau – URSB, and Uganda Revenue authority-URA for frustrating the young agriprepreneurs and innovators through very long processes of registration, certification and quality check of their products and heavy taxes levied on their businesses. He urges those bodies to offer friendly business environment for these youth who are trying hard to be job creators and not seekers in order to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

In 2022, Gulu University signed a-one-year Memorandum of Understanding-MOU with AVSI to undertake the SAY project through Faculty of Agriculture and Environment and the project has so far been very successful with more youth picking interests in the skills training. Skilling in Agriprenuership for Increased Youth Employment (SAY) is a four-year project implemented by the AVSI Foundation through Public Private Partnership (PPP) with funding from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). The project seeks to contribute to increased Agri-skills levels and gainful employment of youth in the agriculture sector in Uganda.