JA Gabon has received a grant from the EU to fund the integration of youth into agriculture & hydrocarbons through employment or self-employment. JA Gabon will work with its partners to create two new business incubators in Port-Gentil Public High School & Nyonda Makita Technical High School in Mouila, supplementing the national Incubator in the capital city of Libreville, which JA already manages on behalf of the government. The program, which is co-funded by Total Gabon, GOC, Olam & the Petroleum Professional Group totals approx. $400,000. Over three years it will reach 1,000 Gabonese aged 16 to 25, paying particular attention to young women, through work-linked training.
“Given the ever-increasing number of young people who have dropped out of school and in precarious situations, the Government of Gabon, as part of its human capital investment strategy, has decided to intensify its efforts to combat poverty in young people aged between 16 and 25,” said Eloi Nzondo. He also stressed that, “the school and enterprise are two worlds which still evolve separately in their respective spheres of activity, hence the importance of creating conditions and mechanisms of rapprochement.”
In total, the program will finance 8 Gabonese organizations and impact 1002 Gabonese from 16 to 25, paying particular attention to women, people living with disabilities and young people out of school or living in precarious situations. It also aims to capitalize, consolidate, perpetuate and popularize the mechanisms of work-linked training and integration into an intervention logic based on the demand of the local market and employment areas.
The Minister of Labor, on behalf of Prime Minister Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet, thanked the European Union for their continued support to reform Gabon’s educational and training system to adapt to the requirements of the productive sector.
