Kumasi, Mar.2, GNA- Over 3,000 self-employed had benefited from the special Agricultural programme of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) as at December, 2003.

They included traders, carpenters, mechanics, hawkers and other informal sector operators in the Metropolis.

Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive announced this at the launching of a programme on the promotion of grass-cutters, rearing of snails, mushroom and leafy vegetables production in Kumasi on Tuesday.

It was organised jointly by the KMA, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Centre for Biodiversity Utilisation and Development (CBUD) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The Metropolitan Chief Executive said, the Assembly was committing 20 million cedis initially to the programme with additional support from the government and CBUD under the government's Special Training and Employment Placement (STEP).

Mr Jumah regretted that, despite complaints of lack of jobs, some of the unemployed registered during the national mass unemployment census, refused to offer themselves for the various skill acquisition programmes of the government.

He therefore called on the unemployed in the metropolis to take advantage of the skills training and other programmes under STEP to improve on their lot.

Mr Boakye Amoako Atta, Director of CBUD said snail and grass-cutter and mushroom and vegetables production have been selected under the training programme because of the ready market for these products.

"Not only will the programme be free, beneficiaries will also be assisted to set up their own businesses after the acquisition of the training and starting the farming or the rearing of animals. Mr Amoako Atta said skill acquisition in the formal sector holds the key to the unemployment problem in the country and called on over 160 people who registered at the function to take note of that. He said his outfit has trained 4,000 unemployed people and 2,000 of them have started serious business adding that their performances are being monitored for future assistance.

In a welcoming address, Mr George Badu-Yeboah, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of MOFA noted that, poverty could be viewed as an enemy that has developed in Ghanaian life, especially among the rural people.

He said the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy deals mostly on Agriculture because if the lives of 70 per cent of the population is improved by access to good health, housing, education and good quality nutritious food people would be better off in the country.