The Entrepreneurship for Restoration Programme is a collaboration between the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) and the Ghana Prisons Service to provide skills in various Light manufacturing areas and Entrepreneurship to Prisons officers and Inmates and to provide Starter packs and kits needed for production. The idea to collaborate with the Ghana Prisons Service is in furtherance of NEIP’s mandate to create Entrepreneurs across the country to tackle the unemployment menace.
The NEIP recognised that all members of society no matter where they found themselves deserved to be equipped with life skills to help them contribute to the society meaningfully. As a result, as part of our 2023 programmes, NEIP decided to collaborate with Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) to train inmates in viable lucrative ventures.
| The main objective is to equip the inmates with entrepreneurship skills and vocational training as an exit plan which will re-integrate them into society after their term from prison and to provide them with starter packs that will enable them to set up economic ventures. |
The innovative Partnership was launched on 12th July 2023, is the first of its kind. The occasion was graced by the Minister for the Interior, Hon Ambrose Dery and the Deputy Minister in charge of Wealth Creation at the Finance Ministry, Hon. Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah NEIP will also provide grants and loans such as Working Capital for officers who have been trained for them to be able to set up these businesses properly and working Capital to inmates for their set up, upon their discharge from the Prisons. The Programme trained 1,240 Officers and Inmates
The specific training skills included the following;
| Soaps and DetergentsJuice Processing Grains and Cereals Nuts, Tubers & Legumes (Groundnut paste, Chocolate spreadYoghurt/Burkina Edible oilsCosmetics (Hair pomade, Body Cream, Shampoo) |
The training project successfully trained 747 Inmates and 353 Officers in all the above skills. We trained Inmates and officers in Nine(9) Prison facilities namely,
Ankaful Main Camp, Awutu Camp, Sekondi Central, Sekondi Female, Ekuasi Camp, Manhyia Local, Nsawam Medium Security ,Nsawam Female and Nsawam Male Prisons benefited from the first phase of the project 2023.The second phase of the project for 2024 will onboard inmates and officers from all the remaining prison stations across country.
Subsequently we have provided with starter packs to six (6) prison stations to help set them up for commercial production. The remaining three (3) however, are yet to receive their packages. The starter packs included Deep freezers, industrial blenders, barrels and other relevant equipments.
2.0 PRE-TRAINING exercise
A team of four members, two from NEIP and GPS respectively visited eight (8) stations to ascertain their readiness for the skills programme with regards to availability of space, security arrangements as well as existing logistics like chairs, tables and canopies etc.
It was discovered that the stations had ample space and some limited logistics for the program. In order to get the buy-in of inmates and officers, each station was made to select the products of their interest. Officers in-Charge (OIC) of the stations also divided the selected officers and inmates into groups based on their individual product interest for easy facilitation.
To ensure smooth running of the programme, security at the stations were prioritized. Risk assessments of physical, dynamic and procedural security were conducted to identify and evaluate potential threats and vulnerabilities that could affect the implementation of the program. The assessment helped in prioritizing and implementing the appropriate security measures to protect inmates, officers, NEIP officials, facilitators, properties, as well as information.
2.1 THE TRAINING PROGRAMME
The skills training programme took off on Monday 3rd July to Friday 7th July 2023. It commenced with an opening ceremony at all the designated Nine (9) stations. While the Director-General of Prisons, Mr. Isaac Kofi Egyir, and the Chief Executive Officer of NEIP, Mr. Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, graced the event at Nsawam Female, the Director of Prisons in-Charge of Technical, Dr. Francis Omane-Addo and others were at the Awutu Camp Prison.
On Tuesday, 4th of July, all the trainers were present with the needed logistics for the program. We designated NEIP officials as well as officers from the headquarters of GPS to oversee the all activities at the stations, especially to help in resolving any challenge that might be identified during the period.
We provided the needed logistics for the successful roll out of the programme in the six selected training centres. Inmates and officers from Sekondi Female and Ekuasi Camp Prisons joined the Sekondi Central Prison and Nsawam Camp prison joined the originally six station earmarked for the for the training, which pushed the total of Prison stations trained to nine(9)
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