At least 120 Ghanaian returnees from Libya in Nkoranza, Techiman and Kintampo Municipalities have been assisted with working tools and agricultural inputs to help them start businesses.

The items, valued at GH¢22,387.00, were presented on Wednesday in Nkoranza at a durbar to climax a two-month skills and business development pilot project for the beneficiaries under the Libyan Returnees Reintegration Assistance Project.

They included tools and equipment on masonry, welding, auto mechanic, carpentry, hairdressing, materials for poultry farming, Wellington boots, spraying machines, cutlasses, hoes, watering cans, weedicides, fertilizers as well as improved tomato, cabbage and maize seeds.

The project is under the auspices of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Brong Ahafo Regional Office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) with funding by the European Union.

The IOM Ghana and UNDP Ghana have been collaborating with the NADMO regional office in Brong-Ahafo Region since November 2011 to offer reintegration assistance to the beneficiaries in the three municipalities.

The assistance offered included co-operatives formation and management capacity building, training in business development skills and the provision of working tools for the trained beneficiaries.

Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, said in an address read for him that out of 20,000 Ghanaian nationals from Libya in 2011 about 70 per cent of them were identified as indigenes of Brong-Ahafo Region.

He expressed the hope that having gained through the project the beneficiaries had the potential to act as agents of social change.

Dr. Abenaa Asante Quashie of IOM said the ceremony did not mark the end of the entire project.

She said IOM was raising funds for another phase of a similar project to assist the returnees from Libya to be reintegrated into their communities, stressing the organisation would certainly collaborate with all interested implementing partners to realize the objectives of the project.

She reiterated the IOM’s commitment to collaborate with the government and other organisations working in the field of migration management to ensure that “migration is managed for Ghana in a humane and orderly manner that will benefit both the migrants and society”.

Mr. Joseph Blankson Nyarko, Brong-Ahafo Regional Co-ordinator of NADMO, said the pilot project was necessitated following a study funded by the United Nations and the regional NADMO office to assess the socio-economic needs of the returnees and their reintegration needs.

Mr. Kwabena Donyina-Koranteng, aged 42, and president of Libyan Returnees Association of Nkoranza, told the Ghana News Agency that the association had a membership of 1,266 in the Nkoranza Municipality and the Nkoranza North District.**